{"id":28390,"date":"2025-06-30T23:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T23:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/28390\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T23:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T23:44:10","slug":"mayor-announces-new-jacksonville-fire-and-rescue-department-chief-percy-golden-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/28390\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor announces new Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department chief Percy Golden II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mayor announces new Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department chief Percy Golden II<\/p>\n

Mayor Donna Deegan announced Percy Golden II as the new chief of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department on Monday, following the retirement of longtime Chief Keith Powers<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Golden, who has served within the department for 21 years, becomes the third African-American fire chief in the city\u2019s history and the first since Charles Moreland in 2011.<\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

He will take over as acting chief beginning Friday, pending formal confirmation by the Jacksonville City Council later this summer.<\/p>\n

The selection follows a competitive search process that began with 29 applicants, 12 of whom were ineligible. That left 17 applicants<\/b><\/a>, which were narrowed down to five finalists.<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD:<\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n

Deegan cited Golden\u2019s dedication to Jacksonville and deep understanding of the department as key factors in her decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cPercy Golden has demonstrated unwavering commitment to this city,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cHis experience, leadership, and community roots make him the right choice to lead JFRD into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golden said the appointment is a deeply personal milestone. Firefighting runs in his family\u2014his father and brother have both served in the department.<\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is major for our family,\u201d Golden said. \u201cI\u2019m following in my dad\u2019s footsteps, as well as my brother\u2019s, who is also in the fire department. Being around the department family, seeing the camaraderie and relationships over the years\u2014it just drew me in. We love this department, we love this city, and we just want to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golden succeeds Keith Powers, who retired after 29 years with JFRD, including six as chief.<\/p>\n

Along with Golden\u2019s appointment, Jacob Blanton has been named Deputy Director of Fire Chief. Both appointments are subject to City Council confirmation later this summer.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor announces new Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department chief Percy Golden II Mayor Donna Deegan announced Percy Golden…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,24474,10083,10861,20781,3188,723,7310,13113,24472,24473,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-28390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-charles-moreland","10":"tag-donna-deegan","11":"tag-fire-chief","12":"tag-fire-department","13":"tag-fl","14":"tag-florida","15":"tag-jacksonville","16":"tag-jacksonville-city-council","17":"tag-keith-powers","18":"tag-percy-golden","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114774976987825807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}