The Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners confirmed Charles Cooper as the new fire chief of the Dorcas Fire District on Tuesday, selecting a Marine Corps veteran with nearly five decades of public safety experience.

• Cooper, currently an Okaloosa County EMS lieutenant and paramedic, was unanimously chosen from 15 candidates evaluated for the position. Four finalists were interviewed in person, with Cooper standing out as “the clear best fit for the role,” according to Patrick Maddox, director of public safety.

“We needed to find somebody better than me, smarter than me, faster than me, stronger than me, and I think we found that candidate today,” Maddox told Commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting.

The Dorcas Fire District was re-created by the state legislature in June 2024 as a special dependent district under the operational oversight of the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners. Since then, an interlocal agreement with North Okaloosa Fire Department, Crestview Fire Department and Almarante Fire Department has provided temporary services to the area.

• The board approved two paid, full-time positions in September to establish the permanent fire service, including the fire chief role.

Cooper brings more than 13 years of fire service experience, including five years as fire chief in Nassau County, where he built a hybrid paid-volunteer fire service similar to what Okaloosa County plans to create in Dorcas. He served four years as a deputy chief and spent 11 years in volunteer fire service. His public safety career dates back to 1977.

He currently serves as fire commissioner in Santa Rosa County and holds advanced certifications in arson detection, command strategies, aerial ladder operations, wildland fire attack, fire service management and hazardous materials. Cooper also holds the “smoke diver” certification, a high-level advanced certification that places operators under mental and physical stress in austere environments with limited graduates each year.

• Nassau County nominated Cooper as Florida Fire Chief of the Year in 2007. He was awarded Fire Rescue Employee of the Year in 2004.

The hiring committee included the director of public safety, chief of emergency medical services, director of human resources, a currently serving north-end fire chief, a retired north-end fire chief who resides in the Dorcas Fire District boundaries and a law enforcement major.

In his remarks to Commissioners, Cooper pledged to work as a team to “revitalize, reorganize and restore the faith and trust from the community that we’re gonna provide fire service for.”

• “I’m not much of an ‘I’ guy. I’m a ‘we’ guy,” Cooper said. “There’s doers and triers. We’re doers. We’re gonna make it happen.”

Cooper credited his colleagues in Okaloosa County EMS for driving him during the past five years, noting the “uncertainty that they face every day” and “make decisions in seconds that others can judge for a lifetime.”

He thanked Chief Darrell Welborn for recruiting him to Okaloosa County EMS five and a half years ago when Cooper was attempting to bring a private service into the county. Cooper also recognized fire chiefs from surrounding jurisdictions who attended the meeting in support, including Chief Robbie Whitfield from Pace, Chief Lewis from Navarre and Director of Public Safety Tom Lloyd from Santa Rosa County.

Cooper became emotional while acknowledging his daughter, who he said “has probably been to more structure fires than most firefighters I know” because she would wake up when his pager went off in the middle of the night and wait at the door ready to respond.

• “She knew more about friction loss, action plans, and arrival reports. She couldn’t tell you who signed the Constitution of the United States or who the 16th president was, but she knew about firefighting,” Cooper said.

Support for Cooper extended beyond Okaloosa County, with attendees traveling from Nassau County to be present at Tuesday’s confirmation.

Maddox requested the board allow Cooper the honor of having his rank pinned upon his chest by his selectee if confirmed.

The position is funded at $90,001.60 from the Dorcas Fire District budget.