'Give me a shot': Helena hires Corey Parker as new fire chief

Anyone can learn to use a hose or knock down a wildfire, but compassion and emotional intelligence? Those are the real traits of a good firefighter, new Helena Fire Chief Corey Parker said.

Parker, a 55-year-old originally from northern Virginia, began his role as the new chief Monday after the retirement of Jon Campbell, who is pursuing a law degree at the University of Montana.

Public service, especially firefighting, is in his blood, he likes to say. Before he married his wife, an elementary school teacher, and pinned a firefighting badge on his son, his childhood was filled with rides on his dad’s volunteer fire engine, followed by the adrenaline rush of becoming a firefighter himself right out of high school.

He liked being the big hero, he said. But while he was a good firefighter from the start, in hindsight he was not always a good leader.

Parker knocked down people like he knocked down fires, he said. He was trusted with getting his team what they wanted, no matter who he burned in the process.

He was a bully, he realized in the middle of a master's degree in public administration at George Mason University, and that wasn’t what he wanted to be known for.

“If you’d told me as a 22-year-old that humility was the most important part of being a firefighter, I’d have laughed at you,” Parker said. “Now, I stand by it.”

He thinks his people skills were part of why the city of Helena chose him to lead the fire department. In the hiring process, city staff noted two big demands of the new chief: working with firefighters through union negotiations and getting a critical staffing levy passed by public vote.

In 2024, during a union negotiation that had Helena firefighters asking for median pay compared to six other major Montana cities’ fire departments and the city gunning for a cheaper raise, frustration built between the 36 firefighters and the administrative staff that set their salaries, according to firefighters at the time.

Arbitration would later find the city was unfairly underpaying its firefighters, and the arbitrator called for $1.2 million in backpay, which Helena issued in April. Though the union would get its way, firefighters said they felt city leadership did not take their concerns seriously.

Parker wants to start over, he said. He said he understands that history is important to people. That said, he felt the best way to handle conflict was to look at each group’s common ground or common goal.

He'll lose his temper and make mistakes, because perfect is not possible, but he plans to make up for it every time, Parker said. He said he expects the same thing from his team.

“I don’t say this in an arrogant way, but I’m the boss, so we’re gonna build,” Parker said. “I’ll set that tone.”

The other big challenge, one that was flagged by City Manager Alana Lake, will be getting the upcoming public safety staffing levy passed.

The Helena Fire Department, alongside the Helena Police Department, have long complained of low manpower as their tax dollar-based workforces are outpaced by the growing city population.

For fire in particular, the limited staffing means HFD will have an empty third fire station come 2027 unless an anticipated March levy is passed. The proposed levy asks for nearly $5.4 million to add 19 firefighters, one fire captain and one fire lieutenant to the Helena Fire Department.

It would also add four patrol officers, two community resource officers, one crash investigator and two detectives to the Helena Police Department.

Parker envisions a two-pronged approach to education: scientific and human. He wants heatmaps of calls to show why a northside station needs to be staffed and response-time data explaining how firefighter performance can help lower home insurance rates.

On the people side, he wants himself and his firefighters to show that they care about the people they serve and don’t just see them as an ATM. Some of the proudest moments of his career have been connecting with people on a hard day, whether a civilian or one of his fellow EMS workers. Even if there isn't a fire in the background, he said this is one of the parts of education he's most excited for.

“I came out of retirement because I missed those coffee conversations, really getting to know someone,” Parker said, referencing the two years he spent as a consultant for emergency services before itching to get back on the field. “It’s not the same at those big houses.”

Outside his work as a fire chief, Parker described himself as a devout Christian and a family man. Alongside his son, he has a daughter who worked as a dispatcher before enrolling in operations school. Parker is eager to travel home to Virginia to pin her firefighting badge this November, making his kids the volunteer fire station's first brother-sister duo.

When he and his wife visited Helena for a final interview in late June, they said it felt like a beautiful place to live and have that "one more time" on the fire rig.

"All I ask is you give me a shot," Parker said.