Former Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis resigned over disagreements with the firefighters’ union about reviewing the fire department’s safety standards, an attorney representing Davis said.
Before Davis was placed on leave in mid-September, he had pushed for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to launch an external investigation into a recent firefighter’s injury, said Davis’s attorney, Stephen Kennedy. Davis ultimately submitted his letter of resignation, which will take effect Oct. 31.
The Fort Worth Professional Firefighters Association, or Local 440, opposed the external investigation, Kennedy said. The attorney argued union officials worried the investigation’s findings would reflect poorly on the union’s leadership and positions they had taken.
“Fort Worth taxpayers and the hardworking men and women in the fire department, they should be asking the (union’s) leadership why they took the official position of opposing Chief Davis’s request for an independent review of safety conditions by a third party,” Kennedy said.
On Friday, union officials announced members took a vote of no-confidence against Davis’s leadership, citing failures in safety enforcement and emergency response standards, according to the union’s statement.
“Chief Davis’ failure to correct violations of safety standards, recognize acceptable on-scene times for EMS and fire responseRepresentatives from Local 440 declined to comment further on Davis’s leave or Kennedy’s assertions about a third-party investigation.
“As a body, the 440 does not believe Jim Davis can lead this department effectively,” the union’s statement read.
About two weeks before Davis was placed on leave, Fort Worth firefighter Caleb Halvorson was nearly killed by a collapsing garage roof during a house fire. He was hospitalized for 34 days after sustaining third-degree burns and a dislocated knee.
, and ensure accurate dispatch of resources have led the membership to this result,” the statement read.
Kennedy argued the vote amounted to retaliation against Davis.
Kennedy declined to say if Halvorson’s injury was directly related to Davis’ call for an external review of safety standards.
From day one of taking over the then-987-member department in 2018, Davis wanted Fort Worth to have more “regimented training,” and the union “opposed it every step of the way,” Kennedy said.
Davis reached a settlement with the city after being placed on leave. At the time of publication, the city had not responded to the Report’s public information requests for documents related to the settlement.
The union frequently endorses City Council candidates, contributing at least $155,000 in the months leading up to May’s election under the name “Fort Worth Firefighters Committee for Responsible Government.”
In the first half of 2025, the union donated an average of $15,500 to each City Council member except Alan Blaylock, who ran unopposed. Mayor Mattie Parker and council member Elizabeth Beck received the most, reporting $30,000 and $35,000, respectively, according to campaign finance reports.
What’s next for Fort Worth’s Fire Department?
Kennedy’s comments to the Report came the day before Fort Worth City Council was expected to approve the formal appointment of Assistant Chief Raymond Hill as interim leader on Tuesday.
The city is expected to soon launch a search for a new fire chief, which will come on the heels of the city’s recent six-month-long process of selecting a new police chief.
That search, which saw race relations, police accountability and public outreach as top-of-mind issues for community stakeholders, ended with the appointment of Chief Eddie García, a former Dallas police chief and Austin assistant city manager.
In 2018, Fort Worth conducted a five-month national search before ultimately choosing Davis, a former assistant fire chief in Columbus, Ohio.
Whoever fills the position must manage the fire department’s newly launched emergency medical services, or EMS, branch. Davis was a key leader of the branch’s launch in July, which city officials have touted as having gone smoothly.
The EMS branch assumed the responsibilities of Fort Worth’s former third-party ambulance provider, MedStar. EMS leaders and staff have said Davis intentionally welcomed MedStar employees and history into the new city operation, and credited that as key to the launch’s success.
Nearly four months after the launch, Fort Worth ambulances are still struggling to shorten emergent response times — a fact referenced in the union’s statement about Davis. Over July, August and September, the EMS branch repeatedly missed the target of an eight-minute response time for 10% of emergency calls by about three minutes.
Davis earned an annual salary of about $250,000, according to city records. He oversaw a department with a $226.8 million budget, about 1,600 employees and 45 fire stations.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
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