New Cobb County, GA, Fire Chief Calls Job 'Dream Come True'

MARIETTA — It was the middle of the night when Michael Cunningham, then a lieutenant with the Cobb County Fire Department, awoke to the familiar message that a fire was ablaze, and it was his job to snap into action and put it out.

“You’re half asleep, you’re trying to figure out and process what’s going on, you’re putting on your gear, you’re reading on (the computer) that there’s a townhome on fire and it’s 1:30 in the morning and so your brain starts thinking, it’s 1:30, there’s families there,” he said.

Crews arrived at the scene to find fire “blowing out the garage, six, eight feet up.”

With upwards of 50 pounds of gear on their backs, Cobb firefighters went where they often go, “where everybody else is running away from.”

What crews didn’t know at the time of the 2017 east Cobb townhome fire was that it was arson, and its perpetrator, Matthew Olson, would eventually be charged and spend 918 days behind bars.

But they stopped the fire before it burned down any of the other five townhomes in the row, and no one was injured that night.

“I couldn’t be more proud,” Cunningham said. “That’s our department. That’s what our community expects.”

Now chief of the department, Cunningham said he plans to keep delivering on the high quality of service citizens have come to expect.

“At the end of the day, my goal is for us to be very proud of serving the community and maintain that level of expectation that the community expects of us, both functionally and professionally to be there for them, to serve them,” he told the MDJ in an interview this week.

His history

Cunningham, 53, was born and raised in Cambridge, Maryland, along the state’s eastern coastline.

The youngest of five siblings by several years, he was the only kid in the house and just 15-years-old when his mom died of cancer. Less than two years later, his dad also died of the disease.

Two of his siblings were still close by and able to help him as needed, but he remained mostly on his own.

“Times were different,” he said. “They were grown, they had their own families. ... The idea of taking a 17-year-old and moving in with them, it just didn’t work out that way.”

After graduating high school Cunningham moved across the country to attend Arizona State University.

“I needed a change of scenery,” he said, but after about a year he left to enlist in the military, as his father and two older brothers had done.

He served five years in the U.S. Air Force, completing his basic training in Texas and technical training school in Mississippi before being stationed in Florida at Hurlburt Field, headquarters to the Air Force Special Operations Command, where he did technician work on aircrafts.

The chief boasts an extensive educational resume, with an associate degree, two bachelor’s degrees, a master’s and a Ph.D.

After he left the Air Force in 1996, Cunningham said he could have chosen to work in the computer science field, which would have required him to move to St. Louis, or take a job in telecommunications in Georgia.

He chose the latter.

But after almost a decade in the industry, he felt there was little room to grow and heard from a friend’s brother that Cobb Fire may be a good fit for him.

He started as a firefighter in 2005 and worked his way up through the ranks, becoming chief of staff in 2020.

Departmental challenges

Cunningham is the seventh chief of the Cobb Fire Department, which was established in 1971.

In his two decades with Cobb Fire, Cunningham has served under four chiefs: Rebecca Denlinger, Sam Heaton, Randy Crider, and, most recently, Bill Johnson.

Each, he said, faced unique challenges and taught him something about leadership that he carries into the role.

Denlinger, he said, created connection by being on a first-name basis with everyone in the department. While facing the 2008 economic crisis, Heaton was forced to furlough some firefighters, but still had people “flocking to the department.”

“That speaks to the type of leader that he is,” Cunningham said.

Crider allowed Cunningham to pursue his doctorate while in the department, and encouraged him in moments of self doubt.

“I want to be able to do that for people in this department, reach down and be able to grab people and build them up,” Cunningham said.

And Johnson, who Cunningham served as chief of staff under, was the department’s leader during the COVID-19 pandemic, guiding his crews through uncertain and polarizing times.

“He really taught me: pause, take your time ... not everything has to be fixed right away and listen to your people, because there’s a reason why they feel the way they feel,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham thinks the biggest challenge his department faces right now is staffing. With 810 positions included in the county’s $150 million fire fund this year, Cunningham said there are still about 65 vacancies needing to be filled.

Filling those positions is paramount to ensuring he doesn’t overwork the staff he does have, he said.

“I don’t ever wanna risk burning them out. It’s very, very important that I, as their leader, take care of them. So filling those vacancies quickly without lowering the standards that we set for Cobb Fire is important,” he said.

Cunningham also said his staff had felt some effects of an investigation into Cobb Fire’s hiring practices launched by the Department of Justice in 2019.

The DOJ found that Cobb Fire had unintentionally been discriminating against Black applicants. Until 2020, the department ranked applicants with criteria that included a credit check and a written assessment that was developed to place college students in courses.

“You have an outside agency scrutinizing your methods for being able to hire, for being able to get people in,” Cunningham said. “There’s always going to be conversation around ‘what does that mean, what does that look like?’ ... You’re gonna have people who look at it and say ‘how does that impact me, or how does that impact us as an organization?’”

The county had entered a settlement with the federal government last May, in which it agreed to pay $750,000 in backpay to affected applicants and prioritize the hiring of 16 African-American firefighters from a pool of those previously disqualified, but a federal judge shot down that plan in January.

Last week, the DOJ dropped several lawsuits that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said were aimed at meeting “DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) quotas,” including the one against Cobb Fire.

According to Cobb County Communications Director Ross Cavitt, as of Thursday afternoon, the county hadn’t heard anything from the courts.

“We have not received anything official from the court, nor have we been refunded our $750,000 for the settlement,” Cavitt said. “So, until that happens, we really can’t say anything.”

Areas of need

Cobb fire has 29 stations, serving all of unincorporated Cobb, and the cities of Kennesaw, Powder Springs, Mableton and Acworth.

Cunningham said a 30th station (which would actually be known as Station 29), has long been slated for the Cumberland area after voters approved it in the 2016 SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) package.

“Real estate in that area is a little challenging,” Cavitt said.

But Cunningham said Station 29 is needed to serve the ever-expanding Cumberland area, which now includes Truist Park, the Battery and Cumberland Mall.

“If you look at just the growth in the (Cumberland Community Improvement District) area, it’s impressive what is happening down there. We’re covering that area well, we just wanna be able to cover it more efficiently,” Cunningham said.

The chief said the fire department uses data and “heat maps” to chart out areas in the county that have greater need.

After fires, especially ones that see any fatalities, Cobb Fire crews canvass the neighborhood that saw the blaze and check that neighbors have working smoke detectors.

“The big thing is smoke alarms, they save people’s lives,” Lt. Steven Bennett said.

Cunningham said all homes should have a working smoke alarm in every room, and that anyone who can’t afford to do so can call the Cobb County Safety Village to request smoke detectors.

Those batteries should be checked once a month and replaced twice a year, Cunningham said.

“When you set the clock forward, when you set the clock back, change your smoke alarm,” he said.

He said even people who have new alarms that promise 10-year use or are wired into the house still need to have their backup batteries checked.

But everyone, he said, should “close before (they) doze,” and make sure to keep their doors shut while sleeping.

‘A dream come true’

When he was named chief last month, Cobb County Public Safety Director Michael Register said Cunningham was well suited to lead “one of the greatest fire services in the country.”

“I have the utmost confidence in your ability ... I think we have one of the greatest fire services in the country, no doubt, with dedicated men and women, and I know you’re honored to lead them,” Register said.

As he accepted the title, Cunningham became emotional while thanking the board and county staff, God, his wife Bita, his family and friends.

He told the MDJ that some of his appreciation for the department, and the ability to lead it, goes back to the loss of his parents.

“I think appreciating the people around you who are there for you, who support you, who believe in you, you wanna give back to them ... that’s why I really enjoy being in the fire service and being in Cobb Fire because it really fulfills that for me,” Cunningham said. “Being able to serve the community and serve the people that I stand alongside, the opportunity to do that from the leadership position of fire chief, I mean, that’s a dream come true.”