Sunday Conversation: Chief Alan B. Benson of The Woodlands Fire Dept.
The Woodlands Fire Department’s Chief—Alan B. Benson, 61—has been the head of the fire department overseeing 164 personnel in the township since he arrived in The Woodlands from Oklahoma City almost 13 years ago. A graduate from Oklahoma State University, the chief, who’s married with two daughters and stepson, has seen tragedy firsthand. He’s been a first responder during floods, hurricanes, fires and during one of the worst terrorist bombings on our nation’s soil.
QUESTION: How did you get into fire fighting?
Benson: My dad was a firefighter. He had a massive heart attack at 38 because of the way they essentially grew up fighting fires in those days where self-contained breathing devices weren’t really encouraged. You were kind of stereotyped as not being a tough firefighter if you were not wearing personal protection equip. Consequently, he had to retire early and didn’t enjoy his retirement very long because he died of a massive heart attack at 46 years old in 1980. Now, prior to him passing away, I completed college at Oklahoma State
University and got degrees in fire protection engineering and secondary education. Prior to graduating, he told me, “Don’t become a firefighter.” Sure enough, I graduated and when I got on the fire department, he at least, before he died, he was able to see me in my first year in the fire department.
From then on, I was kind of inspired to the fact that the fire profession services should be smarter than our predecessors. So that kind of instilled into me promoting the safety and health of our firefighters and our fire profession.
I was very lucky. I’ve been lucky all my life. Luck is a result of preparedness and opportunity. They are not one alone, they are a combination. I wish I could say that’s what I wanted to do. I never thought I would be fire chief of Oklahoma City or I wouldn’t have got on the drop plan. But I did. And I’ll tell you this, I’m glad I did, because I wouldn’t have been down here. Because this is better than it was over there.
QUESTION: What did you see in fire fighting that made you want be a firefighter? Your father?
Benson: I grew up with him fire fighting. He didn’t make much money back then. My dad had to work two extra jobs, plus the fire department to support a family of four. And I remember running down to the local grocery story, which was about five blocks away from where we lived, and I knew that his engine company would be there to shop for groceries in the morning. They would give me a ride back to our house where I got to ride on the back of the tailboard. I was 6- or 7-years-old maybe, back when the parents used to let you go roaming around.
So, I knew you wouldn’t get rich being a public servant or being a firefighter. Fire fighting intrigued me from the standpoint of the physical side. Quite honestly, it looked like fun. Being a kid. I was hired back in February 1980. My dad died August 1980.
QUESTION: How did you meet your wife?
Benson: I met Robin when I was a firefighter already about three years after I got on the fire department. I met her at South Lindsey Baptist where we went to church. I played softball for the church team and she used to come out to the games. So we were married in 1984. That’s when I got my first promotion to driver operator or sergeant. We had twin girls in 1986, Nichole and Lauren.
QUESTION: Has your wife ever been concerned about you being a firefighter?
Benson: I don’t think so. I think she is confident in my ability to take care of myself. While she knows those risks were there, I don’t think she was ever one to worry about it. I think the most worried she ever gets is when she watching TV or documentaries when they kind of sensationalize certain things. So I don’t think - she certainly doesn’t have any regrets.
QUESTION: You were the deputy chief during the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. What was that like?
It was an experience. You reflect back on a large event like that and while it was so…It was terrible. As bad as a situation that it was, as far as a person in the profession in fire fighting, it was a unique experience that nobody could ever teach you or that you could understand unless you were there. I was there for three days 24/7. Then I went to 12-hour shifts. Then went on to work from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. for the next 14 days. I dealt with the federal agencies and the different partners, the military, the FBI, CIA, DEA… All that stuff.
There was a contingent of people in the Oklahoma City Fire Department that went around teaching. So I’d teach eight-hour, 16-hour classes about the Oklahoma City Bombing. I used to, but I don’t do it anymore. I traveled a good portion of the country and had an opportunity to share the lessons learned from that experience.
QUESTION: When Hurricane Harvey rained down on us, there were a lot of bad moments, but there was a lot of good, too. What was the best, most memorable thing about the community that you saw during that event?
Benson: It was the outpouring of the community. Individuals, families, residents, commercial owners who did nothing but supply what they could to first responders. And it went on and on for days after. We had enough food donated to us from all these different restaurants, so we distributed that to all of our eight stations. That was sustainable to get us through the whole event. The outpouring of that was unbelievable. We had families with their little boys coming to knock on our door downstairs with a big bag filled with Chik-Fil-A. It was stuff like that.
It was that community support that you saw that was not only present in our community, but in surrounding community and surrounding states that came in to offer help.
QUESTION: Were you surprised by all the community outpouring, the love and generosity?
Benson: In The Woodlands? This whole community is volunteer based. It grew up that way from when George Mitchell—I think that is what he envisioned. And it’s panned out. It came to fruition. It’s been like that ever since I’ve been down here and that’s been 13 years. I never thought I’d spend 13 years down here. I’m blessed to have that type of community spirit and even more so the professional, skilled firefighters and the men and women of the dispatch center –the people I work with, work for and who work for me.
QUESTION: Why did you move to The Woodlands, aside from the job opportunity?
Benson: Pension laws kicked me out of the state of Oklahoma to say it bluntly. There was plan in Oklahoma and they give you five years left on your job. At the end of those five years, you got to go. When I was promoted to fire chief, I had already gone on the Plan B, so they knew that in three and half years, “Alan you got to go.”
The police chief can stay, but the fire chief can’t. Here I am six months out, knowing that my dead day was March 1, 2005. I started kind of hunting around. A council person in Oklahoma City said, “Chief you might want to take advantage of this opportunity floating around.” It was in The Woodlands. Well, I ain’t ever heard of The Woodlands at the time, much less could I imagine what south Texas looked like with all the pine trees.
I inquired and there was a week left on the application, so I put a hook in the water and got the job. I have been here ever since.
QUESTION: What would you say have been the biggest pushes or drives you have done in The Woodlands fire department in regards to safety?
Benson: Well I headed up the first wellness program in Oklahoma City, so I had that background of critical incident stress and management training and the wellness training with that goal to keep that paramount on everybody’s mind. When I came down here and what was great about it was that they already had that in place to a level where it really did not need change. They had already had a wellestablished program and adopted good procedures. I initiated a different type of medical physical. Before we utilized a company that ran you through the basics of the physical.
To me, it just wasn’t meaningful to a person to make an impact on their life. So I hunted for years to find a company who gave immediate feedback, who provided year-to-year history and went so far as to do ultra sounds of all the major organs every year.
They could detect a growth. It’s actually caught early things that could be very serious to a person’s health or kill them.
It’s probably caught about half a dozen, serious conditions that our firefighters were able to address in the short term versus suffering the consequences of the long-term for not doing it.
QUESTION: What are your ongoing and future goals for the fire department?
Benson: We are maintaining an average response time of five minutes or less throughout the 44-square miles of The Woodlands. It’s the customer service that we provide. Our firefighters bought an elderly lady an AC, because they saw her at the Sears, or what used to be the Sears in Panther Creek. From their own pocket. One lady had to go to the hospital and was admitted into the hospital but she didn’t want to because she had pets at home. Nobody would take care of her pets. The firefighters heard that and told her, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of your pets.” So they did that for about three days while the lady was in the hospital because she didn’t have anybody else to do it.
It goes on and on and on. From the snake in my house or the puppy is down the storm drain, which ends up being frogs and they know it every time, so you got to prove it to them. I’m serious.
That’s what I’m talking about when I’m saying customer service. We have a very high standard. People don’t expect it because when we only fight fire 1 percent of the time, we have contact with approximately 3 percent of our citizens every year. So when people don’t expect that, but yet that’s the kind of service they get—it means a lot. That’s what they do. And that’s what we maintain.
Going forward what we’re concentrating on is maintaining those levels of service and not only the fire fighting but training extensively.
We’re looking at incorporation. So what do we need to look as a fire service in an incorporation? I know the board is kind of looking at that. We have to expand. It was approved in the budget a battalion chief for the emergency preparedness. That person is coming on Jan. 1 from within. He transferred out on his own, laterally, from suppression battalion chief to the eight-hour job. That’s Jason Washington.
Now we can get after a more robust public safety program and initiative, education, emergency management side, more special projects, you name it.
QUESTION: Any plans after retirement?
Benson: I don’t know when I am going to retire. Who knows, but it’s around the corner. I am preparing for that. I don’t want to be bored.
Right now, I’m going to say we’re going to stay right here, because it’s beautiful. Where do you have to go to find a community like this? I mean you have search high and low for it. So no we don’t have any plans, who knows.