STARKVILLE — Dewayne Davis has been promoted to fire chief, taking the helm of a largely healthy department that nevertheless faces challenges with employee retention and pay.
The board of aldermen voted Tuesday to raise Davis from interim status as part of its consent agenda, which drew applause from nearly 20 fire department personnel who were in attendance. Speaking to The Dispatch earlier in the day, he was circumspect about his promotion, framing it as a natural extension of his duty to the city.
“Everyone that comes here is expected and should expect to excel through the ranks,” he said. “If a position becomes available they should always put in for it to try and move to the next level. … They asked me to serve as interim, I said I would, I got here and I like what I’m doing.”
Davis has been serving with the Starkville Fire Department since 1996, just one year less than three decades on the job. He’s worked his way up the ranks but said this is the first time he’s been in a primarily administrative position, with the surge of paperwork posing the biggest challenge for him as chief.
He’s been serving as interim fire chief since former Chief Charles Yarbrough retired in February. Yarbrough said he’s served all but two years of his career beside Davis, who proved himself a model firefighter.
“He always went above and beyond to make sure the department was taken care of,” Yarbrough said. “We have the motto ‘Service Before Self,’ and when I think service before self I literally think of Dewayne, without a doubt. He is service before self.”
Davis told The Dispatch that he’s focused on retraining the department in the latest firefighting techniques and data, saying that it’s a constant effort to keep abreast of new technology and changing building trends.
“The way we fought fires back (in 1996), it’s changed because the materials in the houses we build are different,” he said. “Fires burn hotter. They’re not the same. And the department has to adjust as well. … We need to get to a fire much quicker and start suppression earlier.”
Davis is also grappling with the department’s staffing issues and doesn’t have a specific solution yet. Fire departments nationwide are having trouble retaining new hires, he said, and Starkville’s requirement that every firefighter also maintain training as an emergency medical technician raises the bar even higher.
The department is currently meeting its full muster of 72 with the help of reservists pulled from retirement, but that doesn’t cover the nine more that would be needed to reopen Fire Station 5. Several reservists have recently been hired with an exemption to the EMT requirement, something Davis said could continue but won’t extend to the rest of the force.
He declined to speak about the question of reopening Fire Station 5. Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch in February that there was not a roadmap for reopening the station in the immediate future, since the city was notified in October that a FEMA grant it had applied for to staff the station for three years wasn’t coming.
Yarbrough said pay was likely the root cause of the staffing issue, with firefighter pay this year starting around $14 per hour.
Davis frames public service as simply a natural part of his character.
“Actually (my favorite part of the job) is working to make sure the citizens receive the best service we can offer,” he said.
Yarbrough was more effusive in his praise of the new chief.
“Dewayne will do a great job,” he said. “He’s a great man, a great man of God and he’ll do a great job as fire chief.”
Spruill applauded him as well and said she’s been very pleased with the department’s efforts to shorten response times, noting that fire personnel often beat non-municipal emergency response personnel to accident scenes.
“We’re delighted to have him and so glad he made the application to be the permanent fire chief,” she said. “I’m really excited about having him, the department is in good hands and I think the staff are really excited about it too.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
