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The Fire Ser­vice is re­port­ed­ly fac­ing an un­prece­dent­ed lead­er­ship gap, due to the lack of a deputy chief fire of­fi­cer for al­most a month.

Fire Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Keone Guy yes­ter­day said the deputy chief pro­ceed­ed on va­ca­tion leave on Ju­ly 25, leav­ing the post va­cant. He added that the ap­point­ment of a re­place­ment falls un­der the re­mit of the Ser­vice Com­mis­sions De­part­ment, which has in­di­cat­ed that a rec­om­men­da­tion is be­fore its board, but no de­ci­sion has yet been made.

How­ev­er, Guy warned that the pro­longed va­can­cy is al­ready plac­ing ad­di­tion­al strain on Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Andy Hutchin­son, who has as­sumed some of the deputy’s re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.