Bois D’Arc hires first paid fire chief

Bois D’Arc Fire Protection District has a new fire chief in Greg Smith. His hire marks the first time that the district has offered pay for the position.
 
Smith boasts years of experience and hopes to bring on more volunteers to increase the effectiveness of the rural department.
 
Smith has been in the fire service for most of his life, bringing to Bois D’Arc more than 20 years of experience in the field.
 
A career firefighter, he will split his time at the Bois D’Arc fire station and Brookline’s fire department, where he is also currently employed as a battalion chief. He said in an interview with the Commonwealth that this leadership role prepared him for his new position.
 
Smith is the first paid fire chief at the department, which is, with the exception of Smith, purely a volunteer department. Among volunteer departments, there can be some concern about bringing in a career firefighter, Smith said, but he thinks his wealth of knowledge will prove valuable.
 
“I just want to bring in that experience that I’ve seen throughout the years,” said Smith. “I don’t want to change everything they’ve done; I don’t want to convince them that career is the only way to go. These guys are doing it and they’re passionate about what they’re doing.”
 
 
Call response improvement sought
One thing Smith does want to change, however, is how many calls they respond to. In the past, the department has not consistently been able to field requests for help.
 
Being a fully volunteer department, it can be difficult to respond to calls on weekdays, said Smith. Often, he explained, when a call comes into the fire station, the volunteers are at their day job and therefore too far away to arrive at the scene in time.
 
Because of this, the Bois D’Arc Fire Protection District leans heavily on mutual aid or assistance from other nearby departments while volunteers are at work. Smith wants to turn this around.
 
“The ambulance might take 20 minutes or so to get [to the call],” said Smith. “Even if [a volunteer] could leave their job in Springfield, now they’re rushing out here and it just can’t be done [in time.]”
 
The department has a budget in the mid-$100,000s, said Smith, so bringing on full or even part-time help to remedy response times is out of the question. Instead, Smith is looking to build on the network of volunteers in the department and add more to the team.
 
“To add part-time personnel, you’re probably talking $300,000 to $400,000 dollars; you can’t feasibly do it here,” he said. “So the only way to overcome that would be to add more volunteers and diversify some of that roster.”
 
Will move into district
In the nearer future, Smith plans to move to the Bois D’Arc area to be closer to the community he’ll be protecting.
 
Though he has officially been with the department for about a week, he has already participated in the department’s trunk-or-treat offering for locals. 
 
“I’m not just excited for the [position], but overall, I’m excited about moving out here and being a part of the community,” he said.