NLR hires new fire chief

A new North Little Rock Fire chief was announced Friday by North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith.

Jim Murphy, a Florida fire service consultant and international trainer for incident management, will begin his duties as chief on Aug. 4.

Murphy, 62, of Melbourne Beach, Fla., will replace former Fire Chief Robert Mauldin, who retired July 1.

He’s been in fire service for 32 years and served 25 of those years as a firefighter, paramedic, chief flight medic and an incident command school training officer for the Orange County Fire Rescue Department in Florida.

Thirteen people applied for the North Little Rock Fire Chief job and four were interviewed, Smith said. Among the interviewees were North Little Rock Battalion Chief Phil Pounders, Roland Williams of Rogers and Peter Smith of Frankfurt, Ill.

Murphy will have an annual salary of $95,194.

Information for this article was contributed by Jake Sandlin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

Upcoming Events