Kingsport Fire Department recaps 2025, looks ahead

KINGSPORT — The Kingsport Fire Department responded to more than 8,268 incidents this year and decreased its response time by around a minute. This is according to KFD's 2025 Annual Report, which was shared by the city in a press release earlier in the week. Of the total incidents, 5,736 were considered emergency medical rescue calls and the other 2,532 included fire responses, hazardous conditions, service calls, false alarms and weather-related emergencies. "A strong emphasis was put on training, and more specifically, fundamentals of firefighting to ensure our members are prepared for any emergency they may face," Kingsport Fire Chief Jerry DeBerry said in the release. "Moving into 2026 and beyond we're focusing on long-term sustainability with equipment, apparatus and facilities, so we're positioned to be a leader in the arena of emergency services." Some of the major achievements for 2025 outlined in the report included: Additional equipment and personnel added to Truck 1 Former HazMat unit activated for Technical Rescue Team. Fire Station 1 admin offices & fire marshal's office remodeled Construction started on new live fire training building Completed Citizens Fire Academy for 2025 Continued large scale tabletop drills for school incidents. The department also recently got reaccredited for a sixth time. KFD is currently one of six internationally accredited municipal fire departments in the state of Tennessee. In 2025, there were 46 structure fires and 29 vehicle fires — resulting in a total fire life of approximately $3.38 million. Year in review DeBerry, who started as Kingsport fire chief on May 5, 2025, also shared more about the past year in an interview with the Times News. He said some of the main accomplishments during his first year included creating more office space for the fire marshal's office, restructuring the department itself and putting an emphasis on training. "As a new fire chief, my job really is to come in and not start making immediate changes, it is to come in and evaluate where we're at," he said. "What are we doing good, what are we not doing good, where are we lacking? Where can I help make things better initially until we can kind of get a plan together? So we spent a few months doing that." According to DeBerry, KFD just completed the construction of a new burn building at their training facility. He said that will give the department a new dimension to realistic training that didn't exist before. "It's what we would technically call a temporary building," DeBerry said. "It's a conex system shipping container. If we burn one of those out, we can just take it out and put another one in, and a very cost effective means to do what we need to do." DeBerry previewed that the department will host a weekend for local volunteer fire departments to be able to train in October. "We're going to break it into about six different classes, and host our local volunteers," he explained. "They don't have the opportunity to do as much [training] as we do, so we're going to teach different classes for them. We'll give them live fire, search and rescue, and ventilation [training]." KFD's Fire Explorer Program, which is a hands-on opportunity for teens ages 14 to 18 to learn more about the department and firefighting, is now entering its second year. DeBerry said this year will be the first time Kingsport Fire Explorers get to compete in Winterfest. "We're kind of limited right now as far as how many students we can have, but I really would like to grow that program," he said. "I think now my staff are starting to see the benefits, and so I expect as we move through this next year that we'll get more of our people involved as well." Response time decrease DeBerry added that the one-minute decrease time in KFD's response time from 2024 to 2025 was through a concentrated effort. "We have what we call turnout time, that's from the time that a call is dispatched to the time that truck rolls out of the building," he said. "Then you have travel time, which is the time it leaves the building, time it gets on scene. Then we have the overall unit response time." While he noted travel time cannot be controlled as much, he said turnout time can be intentionally worked on. The department is looking at putting a countdown timers in each station. "We placed a lot of emphasis on accountability and a lot of emphasis on getting out of the firehouse," DeBerry said. "Making sure that our guys can get dressed quickly and even making sure that we can get the alarm right from dispatch." Other top priorities DeBerry addressed some of his top priorities as chief going into the next year. He emphasized additional staffing needs, adding a new fire station near the Tri-Cities Airport, and a continued focus on training. "I need to staff that second ladder truck, I've only got one person on it," he said. "We need another admin chief. Our operations chief does a lot of different jobs, and so staffing is going to be one of the priorities moving forward." He said KFD owns property near the airport but a station has not been built. The closest station for that area is Station 6 on Fort Henry Drive, according to DeBerry. He hopes within the next two to three years that project will be in motion. "There's so much growth happening in that region, so we need to be able to have fire protection there," he mentioned. "Right now, it's about an 11-minute response time to get to that area."