HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – Since taking over as chief of the Houston Fire Department, Chief Thomas Muñoz begins his day with a prayer, then drinks a cup of coffee and goes to the personnel center to see which stations are short-staffed.

“I go every day to pick up these reports and let’s put it this way, every day the stress level increases because we have to take care of them,” Muñoz told 13 Investigates during his first interview since being sworn in on August 14.

Muñoz takes over the HFD at a time when response times are increasing and there are not enough firefighters to use the life-saving equipment due to a staffing shortage.

“In addition to morale – which is my top priority – the question is how we can increase staffing levels,” Muñoz said.

Marty Lancton, union president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, said every station across the city has a fire truck, but not every station has an aerial ladder, which is essential for search and rescue operations.

“Typically, there’s only one ladder truck for every three to four fire stations. So if one ladder truck goes down, that means that the area three or four territories away is all without coverage and you have to call in a ladder truck that’s even farther away,” Lancton told ABC13 in an interview before Muñoz took the helm.

13 The investigation revealed that a fire on May 12 in a duplex in the Acres Homes neighborhood required an aerial ladder truck to be brought in from several miles away, even though there was a fire station just down the street.

Fire Station 67 was less than a mile down the road from a home on West Little York Road that authorities said was set on fire by an arsonist.

However, while the locomotive at Station 67 responded, that station’s aerial ladder truck did not respond due to a lack of personnel. Internal records show that Station 67’s aerial ladder truck was out of service.

The nearest available turntable ladder was six kilometers away at Fire Station 31.

“These are things we really need to work on, and I say again, it is unacceptable,” Muñoz said.

He said that up to five trucks could be taken out of service on any given day because there were not enough staff to handle them all, which is one of the reasons why response times in the city were getting longer and longer.

Last year, the fire department’s average response time to nighttime fires was seven minutes, compared to six minutes and 23 seconds in 2018. The HFD’s nighttime emergency medical service response time decreased from seven minutes and 16 seconds in 2018 to 11 minutes and 32 seconds last year.

According to the HFD, the number of incidents requiring both fire and rescue services to respond has also increased over the past five years.

“This is unacceptable,” Muñoz said. “The people of Houston should be able to expect that every fire station has the equipment necessary to respond.”

Since last month, there have been 588 vacant and open positions at the HFD, so firefighters are being called to extra shifts.

“That’s a big problem in emergency services. If you don’t have units deployed and you don’t have enough units to respond, the safety of people’s lives is at risk,” Lancton said in a recent interview with 13 before Muñoz took office. “We see a light at the end of the tunnel. We see a mayor focused on the Houston Fire Department and rebuilding a world-class fire department, but to rebuild that takes time.”

SEE ALSO: City of Houston reaches $650 million agreement with firefighters union to resolve outstanding salary issues

Months before Muñoz took over, 13 Investigates asked his predecessor, former fire chief Samuel Peña, for an interview about the increasing response times and staffing shortages.

ABC13 never had the opportunity to interview Peña.

However, 13 Investigates asked Muñoz whether response times would shorten under his leadership.

“Yes, they are,” said Muñoz. “That’s a promise.”

He said his short-term goal is to implement an aggressive staffing plan and hire 300 firefighters by the end of the fiscal year in July 2025. He said it helps that staff have told him they have heard from about 100 former HFD firefighters who would like to rejoin the department under the new leadership and with the new contracts.

“My top priority is to make sure that firefighters have everything they need, that this fire department has the personnel it needs to provide the help the people of Houston expect,” Muñoz said.

For updates on this story, follow Kevin Ozebek on Facebook, Þjórsárdalur and Instagram.

Contact 13 Investigations

Have a tip? A problem that needs solving? Submit a tip below. If you don’t have a photo or document you’d like to attach, just click “Skip Upload” and submit the details. (On mobile? You can open our form by tapping here.)