Chief of the Dallas Fire Rescue Department Dominique Artis. Photo courtesy of DFR.
Dominique Artis knows what it means to stay busy.
Named Chief of the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department in December 2018, Artis has spent the last five years leading the department through a litany of “100 year events and events that have never happened before.”
Like a crane falling into an apartment building on the same day a fire station loses its roof. Or an EF-3 tornado tearing through the city, majorly damaging Preston Hollow. Grass fires burning through Balch Springs, social unrest in the summer of 2020 and, oh yeah, a global pandemic.
Artis wasn’t given an easy first five years.
And while not just anyone would be able to maintain a strong sense of leadership through a never-ending wave of trials, Artis, a Deacon at Concord Church, believes he was appointed Chief for exactly the hardships God wanted him to oversee.
Through his faith in both God and his fellow DFR staff, Artis has maintained an optimistic outlook on his tenure so far.
“It’s been an incredible, incredible ride for me,” Artis said. “I’ve got a great surrounding cast around me. Being the chief as the leader, I set the tone, but it’s the cast around me that makes sure everything is working like it’s supposed to. And so without them, I wouldn’t be as successful as I have been. And I credit my success to them, because of the hard work that they do and we do together.”
Born and raised in Oak Cliff near the Dallas Zoo, Artis took his classes seriously and played on the football team at Roosevelt High School. Artis left Dallas for Louisiana State University, where he played on a football scholarship for several years and was on an SEC Championship winning team before he left to play at Prairie View A&M.
In 1995 he came back to Dallas and was hired as a firefighter paramedic in 1995.
After eight years, he began working through the ranks and served neighborhoods across Dallas, including the area where he grew up.
“I’m a proud Dallas kid from Oak Cliff, and proud about the heritage that was there and still lives there,” Artis said. “I’m deeply indebted and care about the whole city of Dallas, but in my heart where I grew up carries a special place for me.”
Artis is deeply passionate about education. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s executive officer program and recently finished his masters degree in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Dallas.
But as Chief, he has made it a priority to reach out to DISD students, especially those at his alma mater, who may not be college bound to show them firefighting as an alternative but fulfilling career option that trains young adults to be “the best they can be.”
“I’m working on a project with (DISD) now to create a sustainable link between kids that may be from the southern, or even another portion of Dallas. If you want to be a firefighter or paramedic for the city of Dallas, I want to create an avenue for you to do that,” Artis said. “And to be able to show that this is a great job, not only in pay, but in what the skills that it teaches you.”
As the city’s population grows, so does the fire department.
Artis said DFR’s calls received is steadily rising by 5% each year due to population growth, making the ninth biggest department in the country the sixth busiest.
And as the department grows, so does Artis’s dedication to providing support for the men and women who serve under him.
Artis said providing firefighters and paramedics with adequate mental health services became a primary concern for him following a string of suicides and suicide attempts in the department.
“What it really showed me in our department is that we had to create a mental health program that was a little bit more expansive than what we were currently doing,” Artis said.
The department has increased their outreach to individual departments and now has teams that travel to each station, informing the first responders of mental health resources such as a full time psychologist that recently joined the department for firefighters and paramedics to talk with.
Artis said the psychologist is also available for DFR family members and retired members.
“We understand that as you go off and you retire, a lot of times you also have those traumas that you’ve dealt with as a first responder,” Artis said. “We try to think of the whole person.”
Continuing to emphasize the program with DISD and department mental health are on the top of Artis’s mind as he moves forward as Chief.
And of course, he’s got a few 100-year events under his belt too that have shown he can lead through almost anything.
“It never slows down,” he said.
Just how he likes it.
