People Who Made a Difference:

Keith E. Klinger

The LA County Fire Department’s headquarters building in East Los Angeles is officially known as “Klinger Center,” named for the extraordinary man who was our fire chief from 1953 to 1969. Keith Elkins Klinger was born in 1910 on a farm near Friendship, New York, a small town south of Buffalo. His family moved to California in 1922. The next year his father, Walter P. Klinger, was hired as a LA County firefighter (he retired in 1948 as an assistant fire chief). Keith joined the department in 1934, was promoted to Fire Captain in 1940 and became a battalion chief four years later. In 1952, Keith Klinger was promoted to assistant chief and, two months later, to deputy chief. In 1953, Fire Chief Cecil Gehr was killed in a collision while responding to a reported fire. Chief Klinger was appointed to replace him.

Chief Klinger quickly developed a reputation as a hard-driving, innovative leader. At the time, the LA County Fire Department consisted of the Department of Forester and Fire Warden, the Consolidated Fire Protection District, and several smaller fire districts. One of Keith Klinger’s greatest achievements was molding these divergent organizations into the world’s largest county fire department. Along the way, he introduced new fire and rescue concepts, ranging from water-dropping helicopters and high-expansion foam to equipping every fire engine and ladder truck with a resuscitator. Also, decades before fire department customer service was in vogue, Keith Klinger demanded that every member of his organization serve every member of the public with the utmost care and respect.

Upon his retirement in 1969, the County Board of Supervisors bestowed on Chief Klinger the title of "fire chief emeritus." Before and after his retirement Chief Klinger served as a member of the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control. His photo appears in “America Burning,” the report issued by the Commission in 1973. Keith Klinger died on February 28, 1998.

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