On their regular Board meeting of July 22, 2015 the ALFPD Board of Trustees announced Chief Van Dorpe appointment to the position of Fire Chief following the retirement of Chief Patrick Mullen on August 7, 2015.
Peter Van Dorpe came to the ALFPD as Assistant Chief of Support Services in October of 2013, following a 33 year career with the Chicago Fire Department (CFD) where he rose through the ranks, culminating his career as the Director of the CFD’s Training Division. Chief Van Dorpe holds a Bachelor's degree in Fire Science Management from Southern Illinois University. He has made presentations on modern fire service challenges at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC), Firehouse Expo, Fire Rescue International, at the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association (IFCA) and at the National Fire Academy. In 2012 he delivered the General Session Keynote at FDIC and addressed the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the “Effectiveness of Furniture Flammability Standards and Flame Retardant Chemicals”.
In addition to his work as a Field Instructor for the Illinois Fire Service Institute’s (IFSI) Officer Program, he has been a lead instructor for the Chicago Fire Department's Fire Officer School, and has taught building construction for the fire service through the City Colleges of Chicago.
He has recently participated as a Subject Matter Expert for Underwriters Laboratories (UL) research on "Structural Stability of Engineered Lumber In Fire Conditions", the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST), “Evaluating Firefighting Tactics Under Wind Driven Conditions”, the IAFF/NIST “Firefighter Safety and Deployment Study” in high rise buildings, and the NIOSH investigation in to the Line of Duty Deaths of two Boston firefighters that occurred on March 26th, 2014.
Chief Van Dorpe currently serves on the Advisory Board for Underwriters Laboratories’ Firefighter Safety Research Institute, IFSI’s Leadership Development and Decision Making work group and lectures both locally and throughout the country on fire service challenges and firefighter safety.