{"id":30102,"date":"2025-10-31T22:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T22:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/30102\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T22:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T22:50:09","slug":"outgoing-fort-worth-fire-chief-raised-repeated-safety-concerns-records-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/30102\/","title":{"rendered":"Outgoing Fort Worth fire chief raised repeated safety concerns, records show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Outgoing Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis repeatedly raised safety concerns about department operations but was rebuffed by union leaders, according to newly released documents.<\/p>\n<p>Davis&#8217; attorney, Stephen Kennedy, released correspondence sent to Fort Worth City Manager Jay Chapa on Sept. 28. In it, Kennedy wrote that Davis &#8220;was skeptical the city will fairly investigate Chief Davis based on prior experience and believe you intend to terminate (him) as soon as practicable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Davis was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/fort-worth-fire-chief-jim-davis-placed-on-leave\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">placed on paid administrative leave<\/a> Oct. 17. His last day with the department is Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Separation agreement bars appeals<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is undisputed that Chief Davis has been reporting unsafe working conditions for some time,&#8221; Kennedy wrote.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/fort-worth-fire-chief-will-receive-100000-under-separation-agreement-city-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">signed separation agreement<\/a>, Davis agreed not to appeal his termination and not to speak disparagingly about the city or its leaders. In exchange, he will receive a payout of nearly $100,000.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy said Davis had requested an outside investigation by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, but was rebuffed.<\/p>\n<p>Union initially opposed investigation<\/p>\n<p>The city declined comment Friday, and a representative from the Fort Worth Professional Firefighters Local 440 did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are thrilled to hear that the 440 has responded to public pressure both from within the union membership, and outside the organization, to support a third-party investigation by NIOSH, which is what Chief Davis requested many weeks ago,&#8221; Kennedy said in an email to CBS News Texas. &#8220;While it is unfortunate that the union previously opposed this action under Chief Davis, and caused critical delay, we are more concerned with the safety and well-being of the firefighters, and this is a step in the right direction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NIOSH probe could reshape training<\/p>\n<p>During a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/fort-worth-fire-chief-will-receive-100000-under-separation-agreement-city-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">news conference<\/a> Thursday, interim Fort Worth Fire Chief Raymond Hill said the city hadn&#8217;t undergone a NIOSH investigation for decades.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;NIOSH will soon expose the unsafe working conditions that Chief Davis tried to mitigate and which the union opposed,&#8221; Kennedy said. &#8220;I anticipate that the findings of will do three things: (a) verify that Fort Worth firefighters need more resources for training (opposed by union); (b) recommend that the training previously opposed by the Union must be implemented; and (c) verify that the opposed training be completed expeditiously.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Stay with CBS News Texas for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outgoing Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis repeatedly raised safety concerns about department operations but was rebuffed by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,124,118,117,8763,15354],"class_list":["post-30102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-fire-department","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-occupational-safety-and-health-administration","tag-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}