Current Fire Chief Jim Davis was placed on administrative leave Sept. 23, according to a city official, but no further details were provided.
According to his online biography, Hill has been with the Fort Worth Fire Department for 27 years and is the assistant chief of educational and logistical services.
What they’re saying
Hill discussed the department's growth from 900 members in 2020 to more than 1,600 members this year, following the merger with MedStar.
On July 1, the Fort Worth Fire Department added ambulances and emergency medical services.
Hill mentioned that EMS was introduced in Fort Worth in the 1980s under former Fire Chief H. Larry McMillen, who brought the idea from his time working with the Phoenix Fire Department. Hill said MedStar started in 1986, and by 2005, those services were removed from the fire department’s purview.
According to previous reporting, the city of Fort Worth funded $4.2 million for MedStar to address budget shortfalls in 2023. The Fort Worth City Council voted in May 2024 to dissolve MedStar and take over ambulance services for Fort Worth and 13 other communities.
“The City Council decided that they had so much trust in the fire department that they allowed MedStar to come into the fire department and serve as a division of the fire department," Hill said.
A closer look
Under the new system, response time was expected to improve by 5 minutes and 30 seconds, a drop from the 13:30 response time from MedStar, according to city documents at the time of the merger.
According to previous reporting, MedStar's full-year data from 2021, 2022 and 2023 all had response times exceeding 11 minutes.
Hill said the current travel time is 10 and a half minutes for emergency calls and 14 minutes for non-emergency calls.
“We got a lot of efficiencies in the works and we're going to bring more call [times] down," Hill said. "We also thank our Chief Jim Davis for his leadership in getting this good transition, and you will see immediate results in your EMS response time.”
The background
Davis has served as fire chief since Oct. 16, 2018, leading a department that has 45 fire stations, according to the city’s website. According to his online biography, he worked in Columbus, Ohio, before coming to Fort Worth.
According to the website, Davis is the 13th fire chief since the department was established in 1893.
