Video: New Starkville Fire Dept Chief Wants More Community Involvement

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The City of Starkville voted in a new Fire Chief and after one week on the job, Chief Charles Yarbrough is speaking about his plans to move the department forward.

“I told everybody that works for me, staff, that this is not my department, it’s our department. So we’re going to do what it takes to move us forward in the next few years while I’m here,” says newly appointed Fire Chief, Charles Yarbrough.

Starkville Fire Chief Charles Yarbrough has been with the Department for two decades. He says from the very beginning, he knew he wanted to be Chief someday. Yarbrough was hired after long-time Chief Rodger Mann retired. The former training officer says he learned how to lead from those who came before him.

“My vision, of course, is going to be different from the other chiefs’ visions. I learned a lot from the other chiefs that worked here. I’ve worked under three chiefs. I learned a lot from them,” says Yarbrough.

The Starkville Board of Alderman voted 4 to 3 to appoint Yarbrough as the new Fire Chief. Now that he’s achieved his ultimate goal of leading the department, Yarbrough wants to reconnect with the residents.

“The first thing I wanted to do was implement a citizen survey. I think it would be a good idea to see what the citizens think about the fire department. It may be good, it may be bad. If there are some things we need to improve on, I definitely want to improve on that. If there are things they want to see done differently and we can accommodate that, we’re definitely going to do that,” says Yarbrough.

Chief Yarbrough also hopes to fully staff Fire Station #5 and improve Starkville’s fire rating in the first few years of his term.

Yarbrough was among five people competing for Chief of the Starkville Fire Department.