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Assistant Chief Brian Davis was named 2020 Firefighter of the Year
One historic ambulance ride in Dallas inspired a career that has made Edmond a safer place.
The Edmond Fire Department named Assistant Chief Brian Davis the 2020 Firefighter of the Year on Wednesday. Davis, who leads the EFD’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS), received the award from his peers, in part for his leadership in managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Davis came to Edmond in November 2002 to enhance the department’s medical response capabilities. He led the transition of Edmond’s EMS from a basic system to one more advanced. That section of the Edmond Fire Department has grown heavily since.
“We started putting paramedics on the rigs here in Edmond in (2006), and kind of blossomed it from there,” Davis said. “When we started in ’06, we started out with nine paramedics. Now, we’re over 40. So, we have the ability to get medicine to the patient quicker.”
The EFD now has 74 EMT Basics and 48 paramedics according to its website.
Davis was born in Dallas but raised in Moore, Oklahoma. He is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and has been a part of the Oklahoma City Metro EMS System since 1987.
Davis said he wanted to be a paramedic so badly growing up, he took EMT classes without his parents’ knowledge at Oklahoma City Community College. He said his parents did not want him to become a paramedic because it involved long hours and low pay, but his inspiration to become one comes from his father’s experience working for a funeral home in Dallas during the 1960’s, where he was involved in a major moment in United States history.
“When (President John. F) Kennedy was assassinated, (my father) was heavily involved in that with O’Neal’s Funeral Home,” Davis said. “So, I always heard stories about being on the ambulance in the ‘60s from my dad and my dad’s brother, they both worked for O’Neal’s. They were pretty instrumental that day in Dallas in ’63 dealing with that. So, it was just always cool sounding… I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t a paramedic.”
Davis’ father, William “Skip” Davis, helped move the bronze casket into the hearse before it left O’Neal’s for Parkland Memorial Hospital, which also happens to be where Davis was born. He also processed Kennedy’s burial transfer papers.
“He was smart enough back then to realize the gravity of the situation, and he made copies of everything,” Davis said. “So, we have all these burial transfers, death certificate and all (these) documents, and it’s from John F. Kennedy. It’s framed, and my wife has it in her office at her work… I remember as a kid taking those papers to school for show and tell, and the teachers (were) more impressed than the kids, because the kids didn’t know it was anything special.”
Davis and his wife, Ginger Davis, have two adult sons, Devin and Zach, and a daughter getting ready to attend nursing school, Bailey.
Davis enjoys hunting, fishing and building guns.
“I like to be outdoors, I like to be outside,” Davis said. “That’s why I like this job, just because you weren’t stuck in an office so much. You’re outside when you want to be, and you got to go out and run calls and see people and take care of people.”
Davis doesn’t go out on calls much anymore as an assistant chief, but the job keeps him plenty busy, especially in 2020. He said he is thankful to have two captains working with him to run the show.
He said he thinks he has about seven more years left in him. Whenever Davis retires, he will be leaving Edmond’s EMS system better than he found it.