The Belmont Fire Department’s first full-time chief is a career police officer who recently worked with the Belmont Police Department.
Chief Todd Davis said his love for firefighting was sparked as a child, watching his father volunteer for the Cramerton Fire Department.
Davis, who is now 51, said he got his start in the profession himself by volunteering at Cramerton in 1988, when he was just 17.
He was drawn to “the camaraderie, the brotherhood, giving back to the community,” he said.
Davis enlisted in the Navy in 1989 after graduating from high school and served in the Navy for three years, working on fire crews.
After leaving the navy, he returned to Cramerton and continued to volunteer with the fire department. He also began basic law enforcement training.
From there he worked at the Cramerton Police Department from 1993 until 2000, when he was accepted to school for the NC Highway Patrol. He retired from Highway Patrol in 2019 and in 2020 he started working for the Belmont Police Department.
Davis hasn’t worked in firefighting since the early 2000s, when he transitioned completely to full-time law enforcement work, but he says he brings to the department some firefighting abilities. leadership and administration that served him in his work as a law enforcement officer.
“I believe that’s the experience I bring here,” he said.
Davis replaces former chief, George Altice, a part-time chief who, after serving as fire chief since December 2001, ‘unexpectedly retired by email’ on August 24, according to the Belmont manager City, Adrian Miller Davis is the department’s first full-time chief, and he earns a salary of $88,000 a year.
The Belmont Fire Department was a volunteer fire department for many years, but more recently, as part of a profession-wide move away from volunteer work, it is a service hybrid, a mix of full-time firefighters, part-time firefighters and a few volunteers, Davis said.
Davis said he has no plans to end the volunteer program.
“The aid can always be used, and it is also a recruitment tool for future firefighters,” he said.
However, Davis plans to make changes to the Belmont Fire Department.
He said he intended to start researching the possibility of building a new fire station in North Belmont.
“We believe this will reduce our response times, and it will allow more personnel to be at fire scenes,” he said.
He also intends to take a close look at administrative policies and hiring policies, and he wants to extend salary incentives to existing staff who want to take job-related training.
It encourages continuing education at the college level and has arranged for staff to participate in Central Piedmont Community College’s Public Safety Leadership Institute.
“To sum up, since I met the firefighters from the Belmont Fire Department, they were always the tip of the spear when it came to putting out the fire. They were always very knowledgeable and truly an agent. security coverage when they were on the scene. They were so good,” he said. “And I would just like to continue that kind of work ethic and knowledge that those guys before me had put in place. “
You can reach Kara Fohner at 704-869-1850 or email her at KFohner@Gannett.com.
