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Hoover fire Chief Clay Bentley
Hoover fire Chief Clay Bentley has been selected as the 2025 fire chief of the year by the Alabama Fire Chiefs Association.
Shane Boyd, the fire chief in Opelika and 2024-25 president of the state association, said Bentley was selected from a pool of a couple of hundred fire chiefs and was a very popular pick among the members.
“Chief Bentley runs one of the premier fire departments in the state of Alabama as far as training and professionalism and character and integrity, and that’s all just a representation of what we think Chief Bentley embodies,” Boyd said. “In public service, character is so important. With Chief Bentley, Hoover has a really exceptional example of what firefighters and fire chiefs should emulate as they progress in their career.”
Boyd said he worked in Bessemer for 24 years before moving to Opelika and got to see Bentley’s work up close because Bessemer is right next to Hoover. When Bentley took over from former Chief Chuck Wingate, Hoover’s Fire Department continued to prosper and grow, Boyd said.
“With the resources Hoover has, a lot of people think those jobs are easy, but Chief Bentley has continued to raise the bar in training acumen and AMASS [active shooter and mass casualty] participation across the state,” Boyd said.
Bentley also has been a central figure in some of the political issues that pertained to the fire service over the last few years and played a big role in the Alabama Fire Chiefs’ conference by hosting it in Hoover and helping with transportation for speakers, Boyd said.
“A lot of it comes down to engagement and involvement with the body,” Boyd said. “It’s real easy to kind of just be in a hole or just be consumed by what’s going on in your department, but it’s hard to grow like that.”
Bentley is advanced in his career but is still very active and really pushes his personnel to train and stay out front in fire service trends, Boyd said. “They’re leaders in the state of Alabama.”
Bentley is scheduled to receive the award at the Alabama Fire Chiefs Association summer conference at the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach in August, and Boyd said he considers it a tremendous honor that Bentley is receiving the award during his tenure.
“I think he does an exceptional job, and I think he’s a better person than he is fire chief,” Boyd said.
Bentley has served with the Hoover Fire Department for more than 28 years. He started as a volunteer firefighter in Thorsby in Chilton County at age 18 and then as a volunteer with the Montevallo Fire Department while he attended the University of Montevallo.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business management in 1991, he spent five years as a full-time firefighter with the Birmingham Fire Department before joining Hoover’s department in January 1997. Along the way, he picked up an associate’s degree in fire science from Jefferson State Community College in 1994.
Bentley served five years as a firefighter and paramedic at Station 4 on Municipal Drive, and then four years as a lieutenant at Station 5 in Bluff Park and Station 1 in Green Valley. He then was promoted to captain and spent three years at Station 6 near Deer Valley, four years at Station 4 and one year at Station 3 in Riverchase. In January 2016, he was promoted to battalion chief and put in charge of health, safety and training, and he was appointed chief in September 2017.
