Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman has announced the promotional appointment of Daryl L. Osby to the position of Chief Deputy of Emergency Operations. He is the first African-American chief officer to be appointed to the rank of Chief Deputy in the history of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Osby joined the Department 24 years ago and has served in all ranks, most recently as Deputy Chief of the East Regional Operations Bureau, where he was responsible for emergency service delivery and management, performance and personnel management, training, budget and community issues related to the region’s 76 fire stations serving 33 cities and several unincorporated communities. In his new position, Osby will serve second in command to the Fire Chief and will be responsible for the Department’s entire emergency operations.
His executive level experience also includes leadership, development and management of the Special Operations Bureau, including the Department’s ocean lifeguards, Air Operations, fire suppression camps and technical rescue services. Osby has also worked in several emergency management positions throughout his career and has been an Incident Commander on an Incident Management Team for the last five years. He was a top commander of many headlining incidents, including the Commerce train derailment, the 2003 California fire siege, the 2005 Topanga Fire and the Catalina Island fire in May 2007. Following Hurricane Katrina, Osby was deployed to Louisiana for 18 days to assist the City of New Orleans in developing a continuity plan for their city government and managing recovery efforts.
Osby holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Organizational Leadership from Azusa Pacific University and is a candidate for a Master of Science Degree in Emergency Services Administration at California State University, Long Beach. He has instructed at Clark Atlanta University, Carl Holmes Executive Development Institute, for the last decade and previously taught at the James Shern Fire Academy in Los Angeles. He is also a State-certified incident commander and chief officer.
Throughout his career, Osby has been actively engaged in community and mentoring activities throughout the Los Angeles region. He has been the recipient of many awards and commendations from local and State entities for his related work. He currently directs three youth-oriented foundations, including Los Angeles Junior Firefighters Foundation, Youth for Excellence Foundation and Firefighter ABCs. He serves on the board of directors of the African American Museum and Learning for Life. He is a member and former president of the Stentorians, a firefighter organization, and former member of the board of directors for the Inglewood YMCA.
A long-time resident of Pomona, Osby and his wife, Margaret, have two daughters, Stephanie, 22, and Nicole, 17.