New Orleans Fire Superintendent Tim McConnell to Retire

New Orleans Fire Superintendent Tim McConnell will retire this week after seven years in the position.

A retirement ceremony to honor McConnell will be at 4 p.m. Friday, according to the mayor's office.

"Superintendent Tim McConnell has served the NOFD honorably for 36 years, and his dedication and drive have made New Orleans a safer place to live," Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement. "For the past seven years as Chief, he has guided the New Orleans Fire Department through a historic period of transformation, focusing on fire prevention on the front-end and ensuring his firefighters are given the pay and benefits they deserve."

"He has been a vital asset to my public safety leadership team, and a good friend. God bless you, Chief. You will be missed but not forgotten," she added.

Joining the department in 1984, McConnell took over the department when Charles Parent retired in July 2013. Before naming him superintendent after a national search spanning two months and involving more than 40 applicants, then-Mayor Mayor Mitch Landrieu praised McConnell for spearheading the restoration for 20 of the department's 23 stations damaged by flooding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"He has been a workhorse," Landrieu said at the time, according to WWL-TV. "He is a firefighter's firefighter."

Cantrell lauded McConnell's role in the collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel last year. Three people were killed when the upper six to eight floors of the hotel, which had been under construction for several months, crashed to the ground in October 2019.

"(H)is leadership was critical during our response to the Hard Rock collapse," she said. "As our Incident Commander on the scene, he helped to bring the precarious cranes down in those early weeks, and later presided over the removal of the remaining victims with dignity and respect."