Meet Fresno's new Fire Chief, Billy Alcorn

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The City of Fresno has a new fire chief and it's a familiar face.

Billy Alcorn, a Central Valley native, has officially been appointed as the new chief of the Fresno Fire Department.

Alcorn has been serving as the interim chief since March, taking over the role following the retirement of Chief Kerri Donis.

Chief Alcorn started his career with the City of Merced Fire Department in 2004 as an engineer and was promoted to chief in 2018.

He has been with the Fresno Fire Department since 2021.

Friday marked his first day as the official fire chief.

"I'm just excited, I'm excited, I'm honored, lucky and I'm really happy about moving this organization forward," said Chief Alcorn.

He says that Donnis is someone he looks up to.

"She is one person that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her taking that risk and trusting me and bringing me into the organization," explained Chief Alcorn.

Chief Alcorn's handling of the interim chief role left no question for City Manager Georgeanne White and Mayor Jerry Dyer that he was the right person for this role.

"If you have any doubt about your level of support at the administration level, I wanna erase those right now. I want you to be the fire chief as long as I'm the mayor of the city and the city manager has said the same thing. You have our utmost confidence and support," said Mayor Dyer.

The firefighters in the department also showed their support for their new chief, as dozens were there for the announcement.

Chief Alcorn looks forward to focusing his efforts on full staffing and diversifying the department.

"The biggest thing right now is to continue to foster the culture here. This culture of excellence in the fire service," said Chief Alcorn.

At this point, the fire department has 103 firefighters on staff.

Going forward, they hope to bump that number up to 130.

For news updates, follow Kassandra Gutierrez on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.