RO Chief recognized as ‘Fire Chief of the Year’

RED OAK – Red Oak Fire Chief Eric Thompson was recently recognized by the Texas Fire Chiefs Association as the Fire Chief of the year for the State of Texas.

Thompson was nominated by Ben Blanton, Red Oak’s Deputy Fire Chief/Fire Marshal.

He was chosen from more than 1,500 fire chiefs in the state of Texas.

Thompson also received the President’s Award from TFCA presented by past president Brent Parker.

Blanton said, “Chief Thompson was joined by a surprise visit of several family members including his wife Laura, son Reese, mother Susan Aston, father Wayne Thompson and the Red Oak Fire Rescue team of Chaplin Jared Douglas, Red Oak ISD Superintendent Mike Goddard, Red Oak Fire Rescue Battalion Chief A.J. Jakubik, and David Petricca.

Thompson holds an associate degree from Northwood University in Business Management and a bachelor’s degree from Northwood University in Business Administration.

He is also a graduate of the Texas Fire Chiefs Academy, Texas A&M Fire Service Chief Executive Officer program, and is a graduate of University of Maryland Staff and Command Program.

His certifications include a Master Firefighter Certification, Fire Officer IV, Level II Instructor, Wildland Firefighter and Incident Safety Officer through the Texas Commission on Fire Protection.

In the past he was designated as a Chief Fire Officer through the Center for Public Safety Excellence.

Over the years he has received the Fire Service Medal of Honor; Meritorious Conduct; two Life Saving Awards; Pride and Ownership Award; Officer of the Year; Paramedic of the Year; four Firefighter of the Year awards; Letters of Commendation; and two President’s Award from the Texas Fire Chiefs Association.

He holds offices locally, statewide and nationally in a variety of organizations and has served seven terms as President of Ellis Dallas Unified Cooperative Team, a regional consortium of 12-cities which exist to share resources and provide regional mutual aid responses and training.

He is a north branch coordinator for Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System coordinating mutual aid resources for 29 counties, North Region Director for the Texas Fire Chiefs Association, as well as the chairman of the TFCA strategic planning committee.

He also sits on the Red Oak ISD Board. Currently for the last 13 months, he has served as the interim assistant city manager.

As part of his nomination, it was noted Thompson was “committed on a daily basis to enhancing and promoting the safety of firefighters not just within his own organization but across the State of Texas and the county.”

He was invited by the Texas State Fire Marshal Chief, Chris Connealy to attend and present to the Mid Atlantic Construction Safety Conference in Washington, DC in April 2018, where he presented on TIFMAS and all the activities that facilitated its creation.

He highlighted specifically the success of TIFMAS responding to Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He has also played a key role with the evolution of TIFMAS.

He also regularly attends meeting across the state with stakeholders and state representatives to ensure TIFMAS continues to grow and move in the right direction by ensuring firefighter safety as a top priority.

Thompson began his career with the Red Oak Fire Department in 1997 as one of the first part-time firefighters the city ever had.

In 2001 he promoted to Lieutenant, in 2002 he promoted to Captain, he made Assistant Fire Chief in 2003 where he was involved with implementing and creating the first state approved Emergency Management Plan for the City as well as the department becoming a certified training facility through TCFP.

Thompson has been the Fire Chief in Red Oak since 2005.

Over the years he has successfully secured funding for personnel and a second fire station, led the department to become part of TIFMAS and he has facilitating personnel to become credentialed in wildland, to name a few of his achievements.

“He is not the type of person who likes to sit still or stagnant as can be seen with the enormous improvements he has made to the City of Red Oak and the fire department he has served for the past 14 years as Fire Chief,” Blanton concluded.