CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The city of Corpus Christi has a new assistant fire chief, and he is making history.
Billy Belyeu has been with the Corpus Christi Fire Department (CCFD) for 17 years. He said that it was extremely challenging for him.
"I was a college student at the time whenever I joined the academy,” Belyeu said. “For a brief moment, since I started in November, I was up at the University at A&M-Corpus and I was working on my business degree, and I was also doing the fire academy at the same time. So, it was a big workload.”
He said that Nov. 28, 2005 was the start to his career and he never forgot how it changed his life for the better.
"For me to get here, it also took a lot of other barriers to be broken,” he said. “ (There were several) African American firefighters have broken down barriers to get to this point. There was a first black African American captain at one point, there was a first African American Firefighter who got hired (etc.). ”
17 years later, that "big workload" with CCFD is paying off. Belyeu was recently been appointed as the first black assistant chief in the city's history and Monday, Sept. 25 was his first day in the office.
"I have to admit when I got the news, I was excited. Not overly excited, but I was excited,"
he said.
Belyeu said the biggest lesson people should learn to accomplish anything in life is to be passionate.
"Follow your dream, you know, but you got to grow to be a well-rounded individual,” he said.
He hopes to be an example for future firefighters in the Coastal Bend.
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