(CMR) Dwight Randy Rankin is the newest Chief Designate Fire Officer of the Cayman Islands Fire Service after being appointed recently. He will replace Chief Fire Officer Paul Walker when his contract ends in September.
Exclusive sources shared that the long-serving Rankin superseded several deputy managers that were heir apparent to capture the coveted top job at the fire service. In 2019 he was promoted to divisional manager for domestic after being with the service for some 26 years. In that role, his primary duties included strategic leadership, preparation and delivery of emergency fire and rescue services.
Despite Rankin never holding a deputy manager position he has now taken the top role over his colleagues. CMR understands much to the dismay of those who believed that they were being trained for the role. Succession planning at the CIFS has been criticized after the previous fire chief, David Hails, left without fulfilling his mandate of training a Caymanian to take over from him.
At the time of his appointment, CFO Paul Walker was given a short-term one-year contract and indicated his primary goal was to find and ready his Caymanian replacement. However, his contract was renewed in 2020 for a further two years. Many officers and members of the community were not pleased that former Premier Alden McLaughlin could not fulfill his promise of having a Caymanian take the reins.
Despite the fact that neither of the three long-serving senior Caymanian officers, Brevon Elliott, Roy Charlton and Tina Ebanks will now be taking up the role many still see this as a win for the fire service. Elliott acted in the role in 2019.
Rankin's ascent to the top has not been without controversy after he was appointed his current role as divisional manager from a sub-officer. He never served as a station officer and does not have any aerodrome experience but his proponents have shared that he is a quick thinker and has a solid management background.
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