JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After nearly three decades with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, Fire Chief Keith Powers is closing one chapter and preparing for the next. Powers officially announced his retirement, marking the end of a 29-year career, including six years as the department’s top leader.

“Just the greatest honor of my life to get to represent them,” Powers said, reflecting on his time overseeing the nearly 2,000 men and women who serve the department. “Look, they’re the ones out there that do the real work.”

Powers, 58, said his decision to retire came down to one thing: family.

“It was the right time. The right time for my family, the right time for me and time to get new fresh ideas in there too,” Powers said. “That’s extremely important.”

While Powers is quick to deflect personal praise, he highlights the department’s accomplishments as a team, particularly the launch of the Mobile Stroke Unit.

“That is a game changer in this community,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve had a big accomplishment personally. I think we, as an organization, have had some big ones.”

Powers joined the department in 1996 and steadily rose through the ranks. He was named fire chief in 2019 under Mayor Lenny Curry. He also became the first fire chief in Jacksonville history since consolidation to serve under two mayors from different political parties –  Curry, a Republican, and current Mayor Donna Deegan, a Democrat.

“We’re blessed as a community to have mayors like that who really understand how important public safety is because if you don’t have a safe city, you don’t have a city, right? And both of them have been, have been very good to me and to this department,” he said.

Powers said he’s received other job offers but hasn’t yet made a decision on his next steps. Whatever he chooses, he says it will be something he loves doing, just like the career he’s leaving behind.

“I’ve loved every minute of this,” he said.

As for the future of JFRD, Powers says Jacksonville’s rapid growth will be one of the biggest challenges facing the next chief.

“Being able to have enough firefighters to keep the community safe, that’s expensive,” he said. “That requires a lot of money from the city’s budget and so trying to balance that is going to be a tough task for the new fire chief.”

He also had parting advice for the next chief: “If you make every decision based off what’s best for this and that’s the organization, the patch, versus what’s best for your name or somebody else’s name or some group of people’s names, you can lay your head down at night and rest easy knowing you’ve made the right decision.”

Powers’ legacy will live on in more ways than one. His son is currently an engineer at Fire Station One, continuing the family tradition of service.