Fire Chief

With more than 25 years of experience in fire, rescue and emergency medical services, David Povlitz was appointed as the Fire Chief of the Arlington County Fire Department in Virginia during November 2018.  Arlington County Fire Department has nine stations with 375 employees.  David Povlitz’s background covers a range of areas, including budget development, information technology integration, emergency communications, training, and emergency management support. He also is an experienced incident commander, planning and operations section chief for large-scale incidents and complex events. He has more than 20 years of involvement with special operations including hazardous materials, collapsed building and rope rescue, as well as technical, marine, and dive rescue incidents.  David has served the Anne Arundel County Fire Department in Maryland and retired as a division chief. He then moved to Alexandria Fire Department where he served as an assistant chief, focusing on administration and process management.

In another key area, Chief Povlitz has strong relationships with city, county, state, and regional public safety agencies. He has served on various Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments committees and workgroups, in addition to many programs within the Baltimore Regional Urban Security Initiative.  David has interests in partnering with many departments and agencies to improve public safety in Arlington County.  In addition, he sees many opportunities with deploying technology to reduce community and first responder risk within emergency services.