The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — An embattled deputy fire chief who was criticized for his decisions during a six-alarm blaze that killed a firefighter last year will retire, department officials familiar with the situation told The Dallas Morning News.
Bobby Ross, who joined Dallas Fire-Rescue in 1984, put in his retirement papers and turned in his gear, according to the officials who asked to remain anonymous because the department had not yet officially confirmed Ross’s retirement. The officials said the retirement is effective 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Ross did not respond to a request for comment. Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Lt. Joel Lavender would not confirm nor fully deny that Ross would retire.
“Deputy Chief Ross is still employed by DFR, I have not seen any retirement package with his name on it, nor have I seen his name on the department’s retirement list,” he said in an email.
Lavender also said he did ask Ross directly whether he would retire, and had no intentions to do so.
Ross had been reassigned to a temporary staff position in September and was later moved to the communications section. Chief Louie Bright III took him out of on-scene fire command after several investigations into Stanley Wilson’s May 20, 2013 line-of-duty death blamed confusion and commanders’ decisions. Ross was the commander at the scene.
Bright decided not to punish Ross or anyone else for the fire, saying at a news conference that “no one person bears all responsibility.” While Bright’s initial was met with shock and dismay — and even a threat of a no-confidence vote in the command staff — from many firefighters, some later said they understood that command decisions should perhaps be exempt from punishment.
What firefighters said they couldn’t tolerate, however, was they believed Ross lied about the order he gave that led Wilson and others to go back into a burning, partially collapsed building long after it was safe to do so. Ross said he only ordered them to poke around the outside of the building to see if anyone else was still inside. Section Chief George Tomasovic and others said Ross ordered them to go inside and search for people.
Tomasovic said in an internal affairs complaint filed in December (see below), which was obtained Thursday by The News through an open records request, that Ross’s statements were “false and evasive.”
Ross has long been a divisive figure within the department. Critics slammed then-Fire Chief Eddie Burns for promoting him to deputy chief. Burns, who came to Dallas after a career in Fort Worth, has defended the decision and said nobody inside the department offered him any criticisms of Ross during the application process and only popped up after the promotion was done.
Ross had his defenders, too. Retired Lt. James Hunter recently told The News that Ross was a good chief who was targeted in part because of racial reasons and departmental politics. Ross and Hunter are both black, and Hunter used to head the Black Fire Fighters Association.
During his time with the city, Ross also headed up the Emergency Medical Services bureau. He was a finalist to be the chief of the Newport News, Va., fire department in December 2013, but mysteriously disappeared from the running amid controversy about Wilson’s death.
Before moving to communications, Ross oversaw some special projects, including the touchy Dallas Fire-Rescue response plan to a development that is technically part of Dallas but is surrounded by Coppell.
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