Longtime firefighter to be appointed Coral Gables fire chief

The next fire chief in Coral Gables will be a well-known face with more than 25 years of experience.

The city announced that Marcos de la Rosa will take over when the current fire chief, Marc Stolzenberg, retires at the end of October. De la Rosa has been with the department since 2013 and has been deputy chief for the past two years.

Prior to that, he was a longtime Hialeah firefighter and rose up through the ranks to serve as that city’s fire chief from 2009 to 2013, when he came to the Gables.

Frank Fernandez, Coral Gables’ assistant city manager, said there was a national search that looked at other fire chiefs but De la Rosa’s decades of experience and three years in the city gave him an edge.

“He stood out not just because of his internal knowledge of the city of Coral Gables but also because of his time as chief in the city of Hialeah,” Fernandez said.

De la Rosa has also previously served as an adjunct professor at Miami Dade College and the University of Miami teaching courses in emergency medical services.

This story was originally published September 20, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Longtime firefighter to be appointed Coral Gables fire chief."