Polk County began a new chapter Tuesday as commissioners unanimously approved the appointment of Robert Weech as chief of Polk County Fire Rescue.
“It feels different, I can tell you that. When I went to bed last night, I felt like ‘Ok, tomorrow, I’ll wake up as fire chief,” said Chief Weech.
Robert Weech has been serving as interim chief since May, when then-Chief Tony Stravino stepped down.
This followed an explosive investigation that uncovered what went wrong the November night when Lorretta Pickard died inside her burning home in Lakeland.
Polk County Fire Rescue responders never made entry into her home. Pickard remained on the phone with a 911 dispatcher for 12 minutes.
Captain James Williams resigned in March after violating policy for a video he shared on social media from the deadly fire in November. Williams was under investigation for allegedly lying under oath about taking previous videos at fire scenes.
Chief Tony Stravino announced his retirement in May.
“That is a milestone, a marker in Polk County Fire Rescue. We certainly send our condolences to the whole family. That certainly comes from me and the whole team. We use it as a learning experience. We’ll commit to getting better,” said Weech on Tuesday.
Weech has vowed to take the 650-member Polk County Fire Rescue in a new direction, starting with better training.
“I’m in the process now of rebuilding that training division with a new focus and that focus is the development of our people,” he said. “It’s no secret we have a fairly young workforce. It’s a very dedicated, very committed high energy workforce and we’re proud of them but they are young.”
Chief Weech previously laid out millions of dollars in recommendations from a consultant on what the county can do to improve public safety.
They include 5,000 hours of training for captains, battalion chiefs and officer candidates and an annual 40-hour officer development class. That class carries a yearly cost of $300,000.
The consultant also recommends building a training facility that could cost $10 million–$25 million.
“We take those seriously. We’re committed to them. We put a lot of those in play and we’ll continue to move down that road for constant high performance,” Weech said.
The county came to a $200,000 settlement with the Pickard estate in July.