The fire chiefs

1853 – today

The department's own count: The fire department dated itself in 2007 at a hundred and fifty-four years — a founding in 1853 — while Edythe Brown's 1920 table of South Bend firsts gives "1855 — First Fire Department, Volunteer." The two years are printed as the record carries them, the department's count and the chronicler's, and not reconciled into one. The early chiefs of the volunteer and first paid eras are beyond the verified record reached for this section; the line stands documented from 1956, when the Board of Public Safety minutes name Alex Andrejewski as fire chief.

Taylor, the longest tenure: Luther J. Taylor Sr. commanded the department for twenty-one years, from about 1986 to 2007 — the longest tenure of any fire chief in the city's history, as the mayor's release announcing his successor states it. The succession that followed ran through one family and one outsider. Howard W. Buchanon II, named the department's twenty-ninth chief on 12 April 2007 with duties from 16 April, had joined the department on 5 November 1973 and climbed every rung of it — captain 1976, battalion chief 1992, assistant chief for fire prevention in April 2002 — and the release announcing him noted that he might be the first chief to hit every plateau of the department on the way up. He retired in 2012, after Mayor Buttigieg took office, chief for almost five years.

Cox, and the second Buchanon: Steve Cox, who had joined in 1993 after service as an Army medic in Desert Shield and Desert Storm and had been assistant chief of EMS from 2007, was chief from 2012 to October 2019, when he left to become Indiana's state fire marshal — afterward director of the state's Department of Homeland Security. The interim command between Cox's departure and the spring of 2020 is not named in the sources reached for this section. In April 2020 the department passed to Carl R. Buchanon — Howard's younger brother, born Carl Hamilton, who had taken the Buchanon name at forty-two; a Western Michigan conference-champion hurdler and longtime Adams and Clay high school track coach; a South Bend firefighter since November 1986, captain 1991, battalion chief 2007. He is in his fortieth year with the department as this record closes, and told the Tribune in April 2026 that he plans to retire in 2028.

Sources:

1. City of South Bend, mayoral release, 12 April 2007 (city document archive) — Luther J. Taylor Sr., chief for 21 years, the longest tenure in the department's history; Howard W. Buchanon II named 29th fire chief, duties from 16 April 2007; Buchanon's service from 5 November 1973 through every rank; the department's 154-year history as counted in 2007.
2. Edythe J. Brown (comp. and ed.), The Story of South Bend (1920), table of firsts — "1855 — First Fire Department, Volunteer" (printed against the department's count in the entry).
3. City of South Bend, Board of Public Safety minutes, 1 January 1956 — Alex Andrejewski, fire chief.
4. Firehouse.com (2012) and the South Bend Tribune — Howard Buchanon's retirement, chief for almost five years; Steve Cox's appointment and service; Cox to the state fire marshal's office, October 2019, and afterward to the Department of Homeland Security.
5. Firehouse.com (7 April 2020) — Carl R. Buchanon taking command as chief. South Bend Tribune profile (April 2026) — the Buchanon brothers; Carl's service from November 1986; his fortieth year and planned 2028 retirement.