Fire Chief Holger Durre doesn't talk around the hard parts. He's the chief of Prescott Fire Department in Arizona — a credentialed Chief Fire Officer, a graduate of the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer program — and a proud recovering alcoholic. That last part isn't a footnote to his story. It's the foundation of everything he's built as a leader. For fire departments trying to understand what psychological safety actually looks like at the leadership level, Durre's journey offers something no training curriculum can replicate: a chief who has done the work on himself, and built a culture that reflects it.
The Safety Net of Vulnerability
Most fire service leaders talk about building psychological safety. Durre lived the consequence of not having one — and then built his way out.
"I'm a recovering alcoholic and a proud recovering alcoholic," he said on the Courage Unmasked podcast, "because it made me face my own vulnerability." For years, his drive to serve — the same value that pulled him into public safety — had become something else. A way to feed himself rather than genuinely give to others.
"There is a place where service becomes selfish because you're feeding something inside of you that is really just for you," he said. "I had taken it to a level that was not healthy."
Recovery forced the reckoning. The radical honesty it required reoriented everything — not just his relationship with alcohol, but his relationship with leadership, values, and what it means to be of genuine service to the firefighters he leads.
"The thing that you're pushing back against the most because you're so afraid — doing the opposite and just leaning into it and letting yourself fall just a little bit. There is the safety net of vulnerability right behind it."
Disclosing Recovery in a Job Interview
When Durre interviewed for the Prescott fire chief role, he disclosed his recovery status to the selection panel. Unprompted. In the moment. It wasn't performance — it was the same radical honesty he practices every day.
"If you had told me that even a year before I said that, I would have been mortified," he said. "It was not vulnerability for effect, it was not vulnerability for acceptance. I have to be radically honest as much as I humanly can in my life — and including with myself."
Prescott gave him the job. And Durre spent the years that followed building a department culture that matches the values he walked in with.
A Department Shaped by Tragedy — and Community
Prescott Fire Department carries the weight of the Granite Mountain Hotshots — the 2013 wildfire that killed 19 of 20 members of the department's elite crew. That tragedy accelerated Prescott's investment in mental health support years before the rest of the fire service caught up.
"Our firefighters are an extension of an amazing community," Durre said. "A lot of them grew up here. There are generations of firefighting families here in Prescott. Our tragedy kind of fast-forwarded it here."
But Durre is careful not to credit the culture entirely to inheritance. "Being a fire chief is like being a comedian," he said. "It's about timing. When I showed up, my personality and where I was at in my own journey matched up perfectly with where the organization was." His job, as he sees it, was to amplify what was already there — not manufacture it.
What the Fire Service Is Getting Right on Mental Health
Durre speaks plainly about the state of the fire service's mental health conversation. His read: genuinely improving, with real work still ahead.
"American fire departments are busier than they've ever been before," he said. "We're all-hazards responders. That means more calls that are more complex — but also a lot of lower-acuity work that can lead to compassion fatigue. That can lead to not being able to absorb the bigger shocks that naturally come in this profession."
The shift he's seen: departments contracting with culturally competent clinical providers, not just crisis counselors. Peer support programs that are actually used. Mental health check-ins that happen before someone is in crisis.
"Most first responders don't go into recovery or treatment because of a substance alone," he said. "It is usually because they have other co-occurring issues that likely were there before they went into the profession. That environment just begins to exacerbate." Durre speaks from experience. He lived it.
Three Things Durre Tells Every Young Firefighter
When asked for advice for incoming firefighters, Durre gives three direct pieces:
- Never let the profession define who you are. "You end up almost subconsciously becoming a firefighter by identity. First, you are you — a son, a daughter, a friend. Those pieces of your identity are as important as this profession. Don't let that siren run you over the rocks."
- You are extraordinarily fortunate. "We get to see not only amazing human suffering but also amazing human triumph and resilience. Never forget how incredible this profession is. That gratitude will get you through a lot of rough spots."
- Help us fix the 56-hour work week. "The average firefighter works 2,912 hours a year — a third of their life. Pilots figured it out. Truckers figured it out. Medical residents figured it out. We have to as well."
Staying Connected to Your Department
Durre's philosophy — radical honesty, modeling vulnerability from the top, staying attuned to the whole person — works because he's intentional about it. As departments grow and the chief's administrative load increases, staying genuinely connected to every individual across multiple shifts requires information that isn't always visible from the desk.
FlorianAI is built for exactly this challenge. By unifying data from RMS, staffing, communications, and department SOPs into a single AI layer, it helps fire chiefs see patterns across their organization — which shifts are showing strain, where communication is breaking down, what the data suggests before a personnel issue becomes a crisis. Not to replace the culture Durre describes. To give chiefs the situational awareness they need to show up for the conversations that matter most.
Key Takeaways for Fire Chiefs
- Radical honesty starts at the top. If the chief isn't willing to be seen and known, the department culture won't be either.
- "Service" can become a crutch. Know whether you're serving the community or serving your own need to serve. One is sustainable; the other isn't.
- Recovery and resilience aren't soft topics. They're operational readiness. A firefighter who isn't whole can't perform at full capacity.
- Community shapes department culture. The fire department reflects the community it serves. Build civic engagement into the job, not just emergency response.
- The 56-hour work week is unsustainable. Mental health programs won't fully work if the baseline conditions that create burnout aren't addressed at the structural level.
About Holger Durre
Holger Durre is the Fire Chief of Prescott Fire Department in Arizona, with over 26 years of experience in public safety. Before Prescott, he served as Deputy Fire Chief for Support Services at Boulder Fire-Rescue, where he oversaw budget, strategic planning, fleet, and facilities. He is a credentialed Chief Fire Officer and graduate of the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer program.