Chief Mark Berry
- chuckhampton
- Jul 17
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 26
The year is 1978. A young kid from the projects rides his bicycle for miles. Parched, he stops at a fire station in search of a drink of water and his life is forever changed.
Mark Berry is now a battalion chief with the Dallas Fire Department and our story starts with a fatal house fire he responded to just hours before our interview. Other topics covered: Mark's backstory, including growing up in the projects, being mentored by firefighters, playing college football at UT, a stint in the NFL, returning to his first love (the fire department), and much more.
Chief Berry currently serves as Battalion 6 in Oak Cliff. He is a long-time member of Special Operations, and currently serves as a Task Force Leader on the Urban Search and Rescue Team.
You can hear his story by clicking on the audio player below, or you can stream it through your favorite streaming provider (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc) by searching for "Firehouse Talk".
Below are a few photographs of Mark Berry, of fires, and of the Battalion 6 response vehicle. Battalion 6 runs out of Station 14 in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. In the last photo are (left to right) Chiefs Howard Russell, Mark Berry, and Mike Jones.
Chief Berry has created an online photo gallery for 6 district (Battalion 6) in Oak Cliff. You can access that gallery by clicking HERE.
You heard Mark make reference to the fact that his childhood home was associated with Box 1414, the only boxcard in the 1400 series. I went to the Dallas Firefighters Museum and searched an old set of box cards and I can confirm there were no others in the 1400's. You can tell this set of boxcards was from Station 11 because they had gone through the entire set and highlighted those cards on which an apparatus from 11 station was required to respond at some alarm level.
A reference was made in the podcast about turning a window into a door. The video below illustrates the concept.
Mark with the bicyle mentioned in the story.....
My favorite quote from Mark's story is what Zip said to that snot-nosed kid who wandered into Station 18 in search of a drink of water back in 1978:
"I can do you one better, I can buy you a Nehi soda". - Zip Crawford
Comments