Longview fire marshal retires after 36-year career: ‘Loved every day of it’
Published 10:45 pm Saturday, September 13, 2025
Going to the grocery store for a gallon of milk shouldn’t take 45 minutes. But sometimes, it has for Kevin May. People he transported to the hospital as a paramedic have stopped him and thanked him for what he did to help them.
“You don’t really realize the people that you impact,” May said. “I would never recognize this person if they hadn’t come up to me first. And so that makes you feel good, knowing that you made an impact on somebody like that.”
May retired this past week after a 36-year career in the fire service, with 25 of those years in the Longview Fire Department. He held several positions and has served as fire marshal since 2017.
May grew up in Mabank and lived there until he was about 20. His dad, Bill, was a firefighter in Dallas, and May often went with his father to work on Saturdays. Being a firefighter himself was all he’d ever wanted to do, he said.
May went to work for the ambulance service in Carthage in May 1989. At the time, he had hopes of going to work in Dallas later on. But he never left East Texas.
While attending the fire academy, he got interested in fire investigations. He obtained his police officer training, allowing him to become an arson investigator.
He came to work in Longview in August 2000, where he put his paramedic, firefighting and law enforcement training to use. He started out as a firefighter and was promoted over time.
“It’s one thing to be able to say I worked 25 years for the fire department. It’s another thing to be able to say I loved every day of it, and I truly feel like this was the best decision I ever made,” May said.
Firefighting isn’t for the faint of heart. May has had good and bad days, and sometimes, memories of terrible situations seem never to fade. But he’s got good memories from his service, too.
“I can remember specifically a call where a gentleman was having chest pain, and he went into cardiac arrest right in front of me, and I was able to get him back,” May said. “And about a week later, I passed him on the road. He was driving, and waved at me. You never forget that one.”
To get through bad times, a firefighter needs to lean on his family, friends and fellow firefighters, May said. He’s also glad to see that the fire service nationwide is working to improve mental health resources for firefighters.
As fire marshal, May was responsible for ensuring that buildings meet city fire codes, and he also investigated cases of arson. Arson damages people’s properties, robs them of resources and causes other homeowners to pay more in insurance. Responding to fires also strains public resources.
“When you can take that person and put them in jail, hold them accountable for what they did … that makes you feel good, to keep your community a little safer,” he said.
May thanked former Fire Chief J.P. Steelman for allowing him to work for the department, and he thanked his colleagues for being the “true workhorses” of the fire marshal’s office.
As he reflected on 25 years with the Longview Fire Department, May had this to say:
“I’ve enjoyed the whole thing,” he said Wednesday. “Everybody talks about, ‘What’s your purpose?’ I felt like I’ve always tried to have that attitude: I want to try to make somebody’s life better, maybe a little easier, and I’m going to try to leave something better than I found it. And I hope that I’ve done that.”
In his retirement, May said he plans to spend time with his wife, children and his grandson.