Dana Massey was sworn in as the city of Katy’s first female fire chief in June following the retirement of Kenneth Parker, who served five years in the position. Massey had been serving as interim chief since Parker's retirement Feb. 2.
Massey has been with the Katy Fire Department since 1999, winning the city's 2021 Employee of the Year award, Community Impact previously reported. She previously worked at the Baytown and Galena Park fire departments.
Community Impact spoke with Massey about her new role, goals as new chief and what the fire department is doing as the city continues to grow and expand.
What inspired you to become a firefighter?
I grew up in a house of firefighters and my father was a fireman for Houston Fire Department and my brothers were volunteers for the city that we lived in in East Houston. So, it kind of became just part of my childhood.
How does it feel to be Katy’s first female fire chief?
It certainly wasn't anything I ever expected to be when I came here in 1999. I never aspired to be a chief—I just try to do my job the best that I can and it just led me on my path.
I feel fortunate that I ended here, but it certainly wasn't something that I was expecting to do and to be the first female fire chief, for sure it feels good.
Has former Fire Chief Kenneth Parker given you any advice since you started your new position?
He certainly led me down a few roads of things that I wasn't familiar with in the assistant chief role. I wasn't a huge part in the building of station two and now I'm having to build station four.
So, yes, he's certainly given me advice on roads to take, what to look for and mistakes that were made in the past so that we don't make those same mistakes again.
What are your goals as Katy’s new fire chief?
My main priority is to continue the high-level service that the guys provide now to the community. One of my biggest priorities is maintaining our ISO Class 1 we’re in the process of renewing right now.
Another priority is getting Station 4 built on Texas Heritage Parkway. To make sure that our infrastructure grows with the city because we are still growing and another priority is staffing. I want to get our manpower staff at 100% and try to maintain that. We do sometimes have a little bit of a retention issue. I would like to improve the retention as well.
What challenges does the fire department face as the city continues to grow? What are you doing specifically to fight those challenges?
As the city's growing, the fire department's only a piece of the pie, so getting funds to continue to grow with the city. One of my biggest goals is to start attempting to get grants for the city, investing in the people, maintaining our facilities while we're still trying to get our people to training to provide the services.
What lessons did you learn as interim fire chief that most prepared you for taking over the position permanently?
Probably that I was nowhere as prepared enough as I thought it was to take the position.
With the position comes a lot of responsibility and as an assistant chief, I felt that responsibility, too, but the responsibility of the fire chief overseeing this many people and attempting to maneuver what the city is requesting from you versus what the department needs from you is a challenge.
Keeping morale up, getting fully staffed and retaining those people while maintaining the budget, it's a huge responsibility. I did know it was going to be a challenge, but it is a bit more of a challenge than I was prepared for, but we seem to be moving forward. I've got two new assistant chiefs in place now.
What do you think are the biggest changes the Katy Fire Department has experienced since you joined it in 1999?
It was so much different when I arrived here. It was October of '99. The mall was being built and they were hiring full-time medics. So I came into a mostly volunteer department and I come from a fully-paid department … The rice fields were still visible.
The growth has just been exponential. We were covering at that time, all the way, almost out to 290 North of town. So, we had a huge coverage area with minimal resources. We just had one ambulance at the time …The city itself has just grown so much.
What is the latest update on the Texas Heritage Marketplace fire substation?
We are in the designing phase now with the architects, Slattery [Tackett]. We are meeting every other week and getting that going. We're looking at probably the summer of ‘28 for opening.
What else should readers know about your role, the fire department or the city?
I'd really like to thank the community for their support because the fire department really does stand behind the community and that's what we're here for … We get donations, food and other items all the time, so they really are behind us.
Leading this department is a great opportunity for me and the responsibility now for me is to take what those before me have built and just leave it better. That's really my legacy, I want to hand it off to the next generation better than I found it.
