John Cochran spent over seventeen years with the Russellville (AR) Fire Department, ultimately serving as a training officer and Fire Marshal. He played a key role in the creation of the Arkansas Fire Marshals Association and served as the organization’s first president from 1993 – 1995. In 1993 he was appointed by the governor of Arkansas to the Arkansas Fire Prevention Commission, and also served as a member of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education Committee where he lobbied for the inclusion of fire safety and related code topics. In 1995 Mr. Cochran was appointed as a Fire Management Specialist with FEMA’s U.S. Fire Administration. His assignments at USFA dealt with a wide range of fire protection issues including development of municipal fire services planning, organization and deployment guidelines and standards and related fire academy curriculum. He is best known during his time with USFA for his resurrection of agency’s fire defense master planning program; a planning model referenced by local municipalities when developing long-range strategic plans. Cochran served as a principal committee member of NFPA 1200 and 1710 and is currently a member of NFPA’s Technical Committee on Emergency Service Organization and Risk Management.
Cochran was assigned by USFA to FEMA’s forward incident command team during the onsite operations following the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. After leaving USFA, he worked for Raytheon Corporation where he managed homeland security business development. He returned to the fire service in 2005, serving in the Little Rock (AR) Fire Department and then in 2007 to Russellville as Fire Chief. Cochran provides a wide variety of consulting services to local government primarily in the area of fire and emergency services assessment and planning including the development of fire department master and strategic plans and fire station location, staffing, and related studies.