Henry Fields, only African-American Albany Fire Department chief, dies

ALBANY — Henry Fields, the only African American to serve as chief of the Albany Fire Department, died Sunday evening, officials from the AFD confirm.

Albany Fire Chief James Carswell said Monday that the wife of the former chief had informed the AFD of Fields’ passing. Fields was chief of the Albany Fire Department from 1991 up until his retirement in 2000.

In that time, he also served as the Emergency Management director during the floods in 1994 and 1998, as well as during at least one tornado-related incident in the area.

“Our prayers are with the family,” Carswell said. “He was one of us. It is like losing a member of the family.”

In May 1999, it was announced that Fields, then 54, would be retiring on Jan. 14, 2000. He first joined the fire department in 1974 and worked his way up the ladder. He became one of three assistant fire chiefs in 1989 before becoming chief in 1991.

He was a 1963 graduate of Monroe High School and attended Newark Community College before returning home in 1964. He and his wife, Dorothy Fields, had two daughters. He was working as an auto mechanic in Albany when he applied for a job at the fire department.

His personnel record remained clean until near the end of his tenure when six firefighters filed violence-in-the-workplace complaints against him after a meeting in which Fields was accused by one of the firefighters of getting “in his face” and yelling at him in the meeting. As a result of that incident, then City Manager Janice Allen Jackson gave Fields a written reprimand and ordered him to attend anger management classes.

The firefighter to make that complaint, Dewayne Denney, was ordered to attend anger management classes after the investigation into the complaints, The Albany Herald reported on May 21, 1999 said. Reports show that lawsuits were filed against Fields on three different occasions by AFD firefighters.

Fields spent the last few months of his tenure completing the Emergency Operations Center, Fire Station 6 and early warning system projects. James Arrowood, son of a retired firefighter and an Air Force veteran who had been with the AFD since 1973, was named as Fields’ replacement out of the field of 26 candidates who applied for the job.

The flag at the AFD Headquarters on North Jackson Street is expected to be flown at half-mast until after the memorial service for Fields. Meadows Funeral Home is handling of the funeral arrangements, Carswell said.