Hearing the news of Tom Ridge's resignation Tuesday, some leading fire officials offered gratitude and a thumbs up for the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Chief John Buckman of German Township (Ind.) Volunteer Fire Department was the president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs on Sept. 11, 2001, and has been the voice for fire chiefs as the delegate for the IAFC on DHS committees working on the National Response Plan, the National Incident Management System and several other DHS efforts impacting the fire service.

“I think he’s laid a good foundation and good groundwork,” said Buckman. “There will always be people who have not played the game who will have opinions about what needs to be done or what should have been done, but ‘woulda,’ ‘shoulda,’ ‘coulda’ doesn’t get things done. Playing the game every day, trying to make things better – that’s the person you have to look up to and respect for their efforts.”

The IAFC offered a "salute" to Ridge on its Web site Wednesday. “Ridge’s openness and enthusiasm for the fire service paved the way for a strong relationship with the IAFC,” said IAFC President Chief Bob DiPoli. “We look forward to working with him during the remainder of his tenure and wish him all the best for the future.”

As DHS secretary, Ridge was in charge of federal grant programs for the fire service, including the critical FIRE grants. "Ridge has been a key supporter of these grant programs and has worked to ensure that grant money goes directly to fire departments as efficiently as possible," said the IAFC. DHS launched the Office of Interoperability and Compatibility, opened the Homeland Security Operations Center and "has initiated a number of other programs to help keep America’s first responders prepared," the IAFC statement said.

Buckman said Ridge "set a tone for cooperation and collaboration" with state, local and tribal leaders involved in emergency response and was sensitive to their needs. “I believe through his leadership he was successful in developing the National Incident Management System, with significant input from state, tribal and local governments.”

Ridge is the first secretary of the far-reaching department, a new agency President George W. Bush formed on March 1, 2002 in the wake of Sept. 11 to better focus and coordinate federal assets involved in the safety and security of our nation -- then spread out among 22 separate agencies. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and its divisions, including the U.S. Fire Administration and the National Fire Academy, were brought under the DHS umbrella – along with the Office for Domestic Preparedness, a terrorism preparedness division under the Department of Justice.

Under Ridge’s tenure, DHS also released the Interim National Response Plan, and is reported to be preparing to release the National Response Plan in December. The NRP, a single all-discipline, all-hazards plan unifying all Federal domestic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery plans into one plan, is another major milestone for the agency. The plan has been vetted by federal, state, city, county, and local leaders and first responders

As the former governor of Pennsylvania, Buckman said, Ridge knew all too well the challenges faced at that level when the federal government “stuffed something down the state or local governments’ throats without asking.”

Ridge said he planned to continue to serve until Feb. 1, 2005 or until the Senate confirms his successor. “After more than twenty-two consecutive years of public service, it is time to give personal and family matters a higher priority,” he wrote in his formal letter of resignation to the president.

Although “there will always be more to do,” Ridge said he he believed the nation was more secure than it was before Sept. 11. “As we have merged the many legacy units within the Department, we have made significant progress in strengthening the security of our nation. Working with governors, mayors, police and fire chiefs, the private sector, academic community and all Americans, we have built relationships that will permanently sustain the national effort to protect our country.”

According to a report posted by The Washington Post, Administration officials said Bush is seeking to replace Ridge with a tough manager who can set clear lines of authority and untangle overlapping responsibilities in the department.

A source in the Administration told the Post DHS could experience the most widespread changes of any of the seven Cabinet departments where the heads have resigned since the election. "This is a chance for a fresh start and a different approach," said the official.

Possible successors being mentioned by administration officials and homeland defense experts are White House Homeland Security Adviser Frances Fragos Townsend; White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Joseph Hagin; Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for Transportation and Border Security; and former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. Former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Environmental Protection Agency head Michael Leavitt are also candidates, according to the Post.

In a press conference after submitting his letter of resignation to the President, Ridge was asked what he might say to his successor about the demands of the job. Be prepared to work “as long as it takes on a day-to-day basis to get the job done,” Ridge advised. “And I think I would say to my successor that the opportunity to continue on a day-by-day basis to make your country safer and more secure, within the constitutional framework, is an enormous challenge and a great opportunity for leadership, and to engage, frankly, our partners not only within the federal government but at the state level, the local level and in our international partners as well.”

Ridge added that Homeland Security has never been “just a Department” to him. “It's about the integration of a country and taking the resources and the capabilities and the capacities we have in the federal government, the state level, the local level, the private sector, the academic community, you name it, and making sure that they are all engaged in a fundamental way, in a certain way that collectively that we, as a country, are safer and more secure.”