Wichita Names Michael Mire as Next Fire Chief
Wichita has appointed Michael Mire as its next fire chief, beginning a planned leadership transition for the city’s fire and emergency-response system. Mire is scheduled to take command on Aug. 24, 2026, and will replace Chief Elizabeth Snow, who is retiring.
City Manager Dennis Marstall made the appointment after a national search, according to the City of Wichita. Mire will become the Wichita Fire Department’s 15th chief. The appointment was announced July 15, 2026, while the city’s current news page continued to list Aug. 24 as the planned command date.
A scheduled change in leadership
Mire has not yet taken command. Until Aug. 24, the appointment remains a scheduled transition rather than a completed change in who leads the department.
The city announcement does not identify the exact date of Snow’s retirement. It does establish that Mire is being selected to succeed her and that the incoming chief’s command date is Aug. 24.
That timing gives Wichita a defined next step in the changeover, while leaving some details of the transition— including Snow’s final day—unspecified in the approved announcement.
Mire’s fire-service background
Mire is an assistant fire chief with the Houston Fire Department, where he oversees Emergency Response Command. The city describes him as a nearly 30-year fire-service veteran.
His career also includes work as a firefighter and paramedic in New Orleans. He joined the Houston Fire Department in 2002, according to the city’s announcement.
That background will carry into a Wichita department that combines emergency operations and support services. The city’s description of Mire’s Houston responsibilities identifies his current work in emergency response, but the announcement does not outline specific priorities he will pursue after taking command.
The department Mire will oversee
The Wichita Fire Department has an annual budget of $82 million and approximately 497 employees working in Emergency Operations and Support Services. Those figures show the scale of the public-safety operation that will come under Mire’s leadership after the scheduled transition.
The department currently responds from 22 firehouses across Wichita. A 23rd station is expected to open in 2027, although the city has not provided a specific opening date.
The future station is part of the department’s near-term operating context, but the approved information does not say where it will be located, what it will cost or how staffing will be assigned. Those details remain unreported in the city announcement.
Regional emergency response
Wichita’s fire department also provides regional emergency responses through automatic-aid and mutual-aid agreements. Those arrangements extend the department’s emergency-response role beyond calls handled solely within the city’s firehouse network.
For Wichita, the leadership change therefore involves more than a new title at City Hall. Mire is set to take responsibility for a department with hundreds of employees, a multimillion-dollar budget, 22 current firehouses and a planned 23rd station, while maintaining the department’s existing regional response role.
What happens next
The next confirmed milestone is Aug. 24, 2026, when Mire is expected to take command. The city has not announced a more detailed transition schedule, Snow’s exact retirement date or the opening date for the 23rd station.
Until those dates and details are provided, the confirmed change is the appointment itself: Marstall has selected Mire to become Wichita’s next fire chief, but the new chief’s command has not yet begun.
Sources
- Michael Mire Named Wichita’s Next Fire Chief, City of Wichita
- Strategic Communications, City of Wichita
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