The city council could vote as soon as this afternoon to hire a new chief for Columbus Fire and Rescue.
At a special-call meeting set for 1:30 p.m. at City Hall, council members will review applications for two finalists for the position, one internal and one external, Mayor Stephen Jones confirmed.
“There may be (a decision). There may not. I don’t know,” Jones told The Dispatch in an interview Thursday afternoon at City Hall. “I hope to have it as soon as possible.”
Of 28 applications received for fire chief, Jones said a hiring committee – composed of him, other administration officials and some members of the council – narrowed the field to four finalists. Two of those dropped out, he said, so the committee only interviewed the remaining two finalists.
The new chief will replace Duane Hughes, who is retiring April 16 after almost 31 years at CFR, including the last four years at the department’s helm.
Hughes joined The Dispatch’s Between the Headlines podcast Thursday at Catfish Alley Studio and acknowledged Charles Yarbrough, former Starkville fire chief, as the external finalist. Multiple sources confirmed to The Dispatch off the record that Alan Lewis, CFR’s training officer, is the other finalist being considered.
Though Hughes, who serves on the hiring committee, did not confirm Lewis as the other finalist, he indicated he supports an internal hire.
“Traditionally, at Columbus Fire and Rescue, it’s always been internal candidates that were viewed for positions,” Hughes said. “Very rarely have external candidates been considered, especially for the chief position. … I am definitely supporting anyone within Columbus Fire and Rescue to replace me. That goes without saying. You could get the fire chief from New York City to come down … (but) I’m always going to support Columbus Fire and Rescue because that’s my family.
“… I’m not saying it can’t be done by an external candidate,” he added. “What I’m telling you, in my opinion, is the process is a lot easier when you have an internal candidate.”
Yarbrough retired in 2025 after 10 years as Starkville Fire Department chief, then launched an unsuccessful bid to unseat incumbent Mayor Lynn Spruill.
Hughes said he has been friends with Yarbrough since 1996, and Yarbrough serves as associate pastor at the church Hughes attends.
The two have a “very good, rich relationship,” Hughes said.
“If Chief Yarbrough is chosen to be my successor in that department, he has no weaknesses,” Hughes said. “He did a fine job as fire chief in Starkville. If he was chosen to come to Columbus, I would only temper that by (saying) that Columbus Fire and Rescue is different from Starkville (Fire Department).”
For one, CFR is one of only two internationally accredited fire departments in Mississippi, and the new chief’s tenure would begin as the process to reup that accreditation begins.
“He would have to hit the road running,” Hughes said of Yarbrough. “In order for him to do that successfully, he would definitely have to make inroads with individuals within the department that are keyholders when it comes to that. One of the best things he could do … in my opinion is he’d have to go to that department, with hat in hand, and say, ‘This is the situation. Let me in the family.’”
Jones would not comment on which candidate he favored for fire chief, but he said he did not think taking on CFR would be too tall an order for an external hire “if the person is qualified.”
Regardless of who is hired, Hughes believes the fire department will “rally around them.”
“They know that person’s success represents their success,” he said.
Assistant chief vacancy, other internal applicants
On the podcast, Hughes also addressed not having an assistant chief in place as a potential successor, acknowledging that was his choice the first three years of his tenure as chief but claiming he’s been blocked from hiring one since.
CFR has been without an assistant chief since Hughes was elevated from that role in 2022. During the last council term, he said, the political climate led him to leave the position vacant.
“It would not have served the department or the citizens to have gotten an assistant chief at that time,” he said.
When the administration changed last July and “certain individuals that (had been) present were no longer there,” Hughes said he tried unsuccessfully to hire an assistant chief, specifically in an effort to train a successor.
“That did not happen,” he said. “I cannot answer as to why that did not happen. I questioned it.”
Specifically, Hughes said he took three applications for the role by October of last year.
“I asked for permission to go ahead and interview and did not receive (it),” he said.
Speaking with The Dispatch later Thursday, Jones adamantly refuted Hughes’ version of events. No interviews were even necessary to fill that position, he said. All Hughes had to do was recommend someone and get the council to approve the promotion.
“If he knew he wanted somebody as assistant (chief), all he had to do was say, ‘I want to promote this person,’” Jones said, at times banging on his conference room table as he discussed the issue. “… He was never denied any opportunity to do anything. I can say that. If he wanted to appoint one of those people for an assistant, he could have.”
Jones also pointed to the absence of an assistant chief as an obstruction to hiring Hughes’ replacement and asserted one should have been hired in 2022.
To Hughes’ claims about the political situation last term, Jones said, “I’m not even getting into that.”
Jones was Ward 5 councilman last term.
Both Jones and City Attorney Jeff Turnage acknowledged three other internal applicants for fire chief were not interviewed, a decision a citizen maligned in a recent public Facebook post.
Jones said the committee decided that after speaking with Hughes and others.
“I don’t think it’s fair to give somebody an interview if they’re not in the running,” Turnage said, noting the city has no policy requiring interviews for internal candidates. “You give them false hope that they’re likely to have a shot at it when you’ve already made your mind up that they don’t.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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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 31 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
