New fire chief looks at department needs

For Ken Morgan, it’s almost like coming home.

Now, two weeks on the job, Boulder City Fire Department’s new chief said everything is so far, so good.

“Things are going very well,” he said. “I’m getting into the grind of things and starting to understand the nuances of the city and administrative end of it. I’m also getting to know the crews. It’s important that I get to know them as well as I possibly can. Overall, I’m just getting a grip on what’s going on within the department and the city.”

Morgan is no stranger to Southern Nevada as he served with the Clark County Fire Department for 21 years and retired from there before taking a job as chief of the fire department in Meriden, Conn. for 13 years.

“We (he and his wife, Dona) had always talked about coming back this way,” he said. “We really fell in love with Connecticut, with four seasons, and we have a lot of friends there. We had originally planned to split our time between here and there (after his retirement from Meriden on April 1). But I saw an opportunity and said, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ I applied for this job and was fortunate enough to get it.”

Morgan said there are aspects about this job compared to his last that make things a bit challenging but, in the end, the job and the mission are pretty much the same.

When Morgan’s hiring was announced, City Manager Ned Thomas said his experience is what set him apart from others.

“The extensive candidate review process included members of the city’s executive team, professional fire and emergency response personnel from other Southern Nevada communities, and members of the Boulder City community,” he said. “It was a very tight competition between the top candidates. Chief Morgan’s decades of experience in Clark County and as a local fire chief and department administrator stood out to me as especially beneficial for the department.”

Morgan replaces former Chief Will Gray, who was relieved of his duties by the city in April 2024. Since then, Deputy Chief Greg Chesser has been serving as acting chief. Despite the job announcement going out in January of this year, the city chose to wait until Thomas came aboard so that he’d have the final say on who would become the next fire chief.

“There was a point in time when I thought maybe I hadn’t even been selected to participate in the hiring process,” Morgan said. “It didn’t give me anxiety but I was a bit concerned because I wanted to know one way or the other. But then, about as fast as I got concerned about it, I got an email about an interview. I was fine after that. It was a no-brainer when I was offered the job. To be chief in Boulder City was an easy decision.”

With around 40 years in the profession and having already retired twice, Morgan acknowledged that while there are no guarantees in life, he wanted to let the residents know this isn’t just a short-term stop for him.

“One thing I can say is that I do not like being retired,” he said. “I like working. I know that’s odd but that’s my nature. I’ve been retired twice but even during those times, I still worked as a professor or taught EMS (emergency medical services).”

Morgan, an Air Force veteran, not only goes by chief but doctor as well. He holds a Ph.D. in business and public administration from Northcentral University in Prescott, Ariz., and a master’s degree in public administration from UNLV.

While he’s getting to know the ins and out of the department, Morgan is making a list of things he’d like to see added, changed or improved upon. Like his predecessor, he said a second fire station will be needed — eventually.

“I do think we need to look seriously at a second station but there are other priorities that we can do to make the department better,” he said.

One of them is to construct a storage building, which started this week behind the station. Moving the administrative offices into a separate building is also needed, he said. He’s not sure where but if it happens, the current offices, including his, would be used as dorm rooms for additional firefighters.

“We’re at the absolute minimum we can deal with right now,” Morgan said. “We need more staff. There are numerous arguments to that fact but two come to mind. The service we need to provide the city sometimes isn’t there. There are times when we don’t have anyone available to handle a call. That concerns me. We shouldn’t be in a position where we don’t have anybody to do that. We’re keeping an eye on how often that happens. Two EMS calls, a back-to-back, or one large call, and we don’t have anyone to service the city.

“Secondly, if we have a large fire, we don’t have the staff to handle something like that. So, increasing staff is something we really need to do. A second station would be great but we have a lot of other things we need to focus on first.”