Council holds fire chief interviews, vote set for Monday

Aug. 28--Decatur Fire & Rescue's hiring struggles, challenges it faces with COVID-19 and the feasibility of the department taking over ambulance service highlighted City Council members' interview of their apparent choice for fire chief, Division Chief Tracy Thornton, on Thursday.

Fire Marshal Jason Jones also was interviewed, but the council voiced its support for Thornton last week when he was the only person nominated by three members for an interview. The other two then joined the majority.

The council has a called meeting set for 4:45 p.m. Monday to vote on filling the position.

The City Council also plans to meet Monday in an 8:30 a.m. work session on the fiscal 2020 budget and hold its regular 5 p.m. work session to review the Sept. 8 council meeting agenda.

Thornton and Jones were the only candidates interviewed out of 15 semifinalists. The fire chief search was delayed in March by the coronavirus pandemic.

Thornton, 48, joined the department in 1999 and worked his way through the ranks.

Just days after Thornton's promotion to division chief, then-Fire Chief Tony Grande resigned. Thornton has been sharing the chief's duties with Division Chief Trent Putnam since Grande's December departure.

Thornton said it has been an adjustment as he learned on the job and switched from shift work to a normal day job.

"I feel like we've done a pretty good job and then we had to deal with COVID-19," Thornton said.

Thornton said department officers created a manual for dealing with the virus that they've revised multiple times.

"We've had a number of surrounding departments ask to review it," Thornton said.

Some of his firefighters contracted the virus and some were exposed but none had it as of Thursday, he said.

When asked about the department's issues and weaknesses, Thornton said it's having a hard time getting applicants, especially women. The department has only one female firefighter.

"When I started in 1999, there were probably 700, 800 or 900 applicants," Thornton said. "Now we're lucky to get 100. It's a dangerous, dirty and hard job, and there's a lot of competition from industry.

"We want diversity, especially females, but it's hard to get anybody to apply."

Thornton said Decatur is the only major local city that doesn't pay extra to a firefighter who is a trained paramedic. He said it's also easier and less expensive to become a registered nurse than a paramedic, whose only job options are with an ambulance service or a fire department.

"An RN has a lot of options, and she can even go on and become a nurse practitioner," Thornton said.

Thornton said the department needs to do a better job of education and recruitment in the secondary schools and area colleges.

"We should target some of the collegiate men's and women's athletics teams," Thornton said.

Jones said the department also needs mental health counselors for dealing with the difficulties of the job.

"They see a lot of things they don't want to take home to their families," Jones said. "And there's no shame in talking to someone."

Councilman Billy Jackson told both men he is a proponent of Decatur Fire & Rescue starting its own ambulance service.

First Response has been the city's privately run ambulance service since 2014, but the company has had issues with response times and vehicle quality. Decatur Fire & Rescue crews also respond to emergency medical calls.

Both interviewees said starting an ambulance service would be expensive at the start, but some of the costs would be offset as the department began bringing in revenue from the call charges.

"To truly have the ambulance service you want, your fire department will have to run it," Jones said. "A private ambulance service has to worry too much about the balance between good service and making money."

Thornton said an estimate done a few years ago concluded it would cost $2 million to $3 million at startup. The department would have to buy equipment and hire additional employees.

Thornton said the additional paramedics would also boost the city's fire insurance rating from ISO 2 to ISO 1.

"One of my goals as chief is to raise our ISO rating," Thornton said. "Madison and Huntsville have an ISO 1 rating. There's no reason we shouldn't have the same rating."

Council President Paige Bibbee suggested public-private partnerships in which the fire department provides the ambulance service space at its fire stations and the department runs emergency calls while the private ambulance service does the more profitable non-emergency calls.

Neither Thornton nor Jones live in the city, but said they would move to Decatur if hired to fulfill the council requirement that city directors live in the city limits.

A 1990 Ardmore High grad, Thornton said he's known since he was a child that he wanted to be a firefighter.

"I've gotten great experience with the department and I just want to mold it and make it better," Thornton said.

Thornton is an Ardmore resident and a father of four.

Jones, 44, is a Hillsboro resident with two children. He joined the department in 2002.

Jones said he already feels Decatur is home because he works, eats and shops in the city. He said his children go to Decatur Heritage Christian Academy so moving would be an easy transition.

"I just want to let y'all know who I am because a lot of times people have a misconception about who people are," Jones told the council.

The salary range for the fire chief position is $86,328.80 to $131,359.48.

-- [email protected] or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.

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