City honors Fire Chief Parnell for 40 years of service
Published 12:00 am Thursday, January 23, 2025
SALISBURY — As the Salisbury City Council meeting wound down on Tuesday night, City Manager Jim Greene Jr. revealed he had one surprise addition to the agenda: honoring Fire Chief Bob Parnell for 40 years of service with the city fire department.
Parnell joined the Salisbury Fire Department in November of 1984, with Greene saying that between the holidays and the unexpected death of Mayor Karen Alexander, the celebration of Parnell’s service had been delayed by a few months.
“Chief, we wanted to take a moment tonight and recognize and thank you for 40 years. 40 years of anything is a tremendously long and incredible amount of time, but 40 years devoted to the fire department and providing property- and life-safety services to the citizens and businesses of Salisbury is just amazing. This past November, unfortunately, we missed the opportunity to celebrate but we want to take that opportunity tonight,” said Greene.
After becoming a firefighter in 1984, Parnell would be promoted to engineer in 1985, captain in 1986 and battalion chief in early 2004. On May 1, 2004, Parnell was named Salisbury Fire Chief, a position he has held ever since.
As part of the occasion, the city invited Parnell’s family to help recognize him. Unfortunately, Parnell’s wife Tanya was unable to attend due to illness, but his oldest son and Rowan County Rescue Squad Chief Bobby Parnell was able to attend and surprise his father. The elder Parnell also made sure to recognize his younger son, Adam, who is also a firefighter and was unable to attend.
“Hearing all the kind words, we’ve always known how great of a person he is, how great of a dad he is. I speak for everybody in my family when I say that we’ve looked up to him for forever and to hear all the good stories and see that y’all recognize that as well, we’re happy to have shared him for 40 years,” said the younger Parnell.
Greene joked that he hears that the department needs more firefighters every month, so he identified 15 new “recruits,” for him. All 15 members of the city’s administrative team and the department heads then each donned plastic fire helmets and spoke about what the elder Parnell has meant, both to them and to the city.
“You probably don’t remember this, but at one point in my career with the city, I had something I needed to do on Innes Street. I quickly pulled into the Wendy’s parking lot across from Station 1, and I needed to take a measurement in the median so I ran out there, got my measurement and jumped back into my car. I headed to the office and I got a text from Chief Parnell that gently reminded me to put on my safety vest if I was going to do that. I never went into traffic in front of Station 1 again,” said Transportation Director Wendy Brindle.
Parnell’s impressive dedication and ability to always be present and always willing to communicate were common refrains on Tuesday.
“Forty years, congratulations, but these 20 years of being on 24/7, the stress that goes into that. I’m sure you missed some games and some other things that you wish you could have been there for, being on 24/7. I know it’s difficult and that’s very impressive that you’ve been able to do it. Fifteen was enough for me,” said Councilor Harry McLaughlin, referring to his 15 years in the Secret Service.
City Attorney Graham Corriher spoke about sitting with his family and witnessing the fire that destroyed the Power Cross building. The family lives across the street, and Corriher said that the lengthy emergency left his children “devastated.”
“Chief Parnell was there all day, and after things calmed down, my crying seven-year-old in the yard, (Parnell) takes him out and walks him around all the fire trucks and gets his picture taken on the back of Engine Three with the Kool-Aid Man,” said Corriher.
The city officials also made sure to point out the advancements that the fire department has made under the elder Parnell’s leadership, which will soon include four new fire stations to bring the department to six, achieving the best ISO Insurance Fire Rating of one and the purchase of approximately 12 new apparatus.
“I think what I’ve always appreciated about you is not only your ability to look back at history, but you’re looking to the future. You have more foresight than anybody in this organization. I think he has planned those four fire stations but probably already has seven, eight, nine and 10 planned out,” said Community Planning Director Hannah Jacobson.
Of course, the elder Parnell returned some of the praise to the firefighters that have served alongside him, making sure to state that he did not do any of the work alone.
“It has been my honor to serve and the only thing I can say that I have put into it is being serious about the job. The success of the fire department relies on every member that works at the fire stations. They do a great job, they’re dedicated and they want to do the best they can for the city and that’s what this is all about,” he said.
Fire department reclassifies two positions to “fill the gaps”
The Salisbury Fire Department has been operating with a vacancy in one of its division chief positions, and Fire Chief Parnell said that they were reclassifying both that position and a staff captain position to better fill in the department’s gaps.
The empty division chief position will be reclassified down in rank, becoming the battalion chief of emergency management, said Parnell, while the staff captain will move up to become the battalion chief of safety and training. Greene said that because they were effectively meeting in the middle with the moves, it would not represent a significant change to the budget.
The safety and training chief would be tasked with internal training operations, said Parnell, with the role currently “going back and forth” between the staff. The emergency management chief would be tasked with planning emergency responses for community events, a change that he said was inspired by the death of an 11-year-old girl in a crash during a Raleigh parade and the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that left 14 people dead.
“We’ve got to step up and tighten up and get a little bit more focused on the emergency management planning of our community events. I think everybody sees that. I think you know that we are very responsible, our focus just needs to be a little more defined, and so this position would have the direct responsibility to work with law enforcement, county emergency management and, within our city, all the departments,” said Parnell.