Smeathers to retire from DCFD at end of August

August 15, 2019 | 3:25 am

Updated August 14, 2019 | 11:28 pm

After 30 years as a firefighter, Daviess County Fire Chief Dwane Smeathers said it’s time for him to retire. His last day will be Aug. 31. | Photo by Ashley Sorce

After 30 years as a firefighter, Daviess County Fire Chief Dwane Smeathers said it’s time to retire.

“I’ve enjoyed my career, but it’s time to move on,” he said.

August 31 will be Smeathers’ last day and he said the hardest part of retirement will be leaving the team he has come to know as family.

“My wife and I feel like we have 28 extra kids,” he said of the firefighters he has under his command at DCFD. “More like 56 with their significant others. Leaving the job won’t be as hard as leaving the people.”

Smeathers has held the chief title for the last 10 years. Prior to that he was the assistant chief of the Airport-Sorgho station and a lieutenant before that. Smeathers said he worked his way up the ranks after beginning as a volunteer firefighter at the Yelvington department.

Smeathers said it was seeing a car accident happen right in front of him on an east Daviess County road that made him join the volunteer station just after high school.

“I didn’t like not knowing how to help those people,” he said of the accident victims.

In the 30 years he’s been on the job, Smeathers ranks a few experiences above the rest.

When President Bill Clinton visited Owensboro in 2000, the presidential limo was stored at the Airport-Sorgho station. Smeathers said he and his fellow firefighters washed the vehicle while it was under their watch.

“I’ve always said everyone has a once in a lifetime opportunity and that was mine,” he said.

Smeathers was newly-appointed chief when he was called into then Judge-Executive Reid Haire’s office without given a reason. He was introduced to a television producer who swore him to secrecy about a surprise coming to one of Daviess County’s volunteer firefighters.

Three months later Extreme Makeover: Home Edition rolled into town to build Steve and Melissa Mattingly a new home. Steve was a volunteer firefighter at Yelvington and Melissa an EMT.

The new station at the the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport, which was opened in May, is a crown jewel for the department, but also a career highlight for Smeathers.

“I never thought I would see this station built,” he said. “Once I saw the light at the end of the tunnel with the construction of this station, I knew I wanted to stay until it was up and running.”

Although the new station is now well established, Smeathers said he almost considered delaying his retirement after the East Station was struck by lightning causing a damaging fire.

“But I know I am leaving it in good hands,” he said.

Daviess County Fiscal Court has not named a new fire chief. According to Smeathers, internal candidates will be interviewed Thursday, after which Fiscal Court representatives will decide if they want to open up the position to outside candidates or promote from within. Assistant Fire Chiefs Shuan Blandford and Jeremy Smith, both 20-year firefighters, have applied for the job.

“It will be fine with whoever they choose,” Smeathers said.

Come September, Smeathers plans to start working on a long list of “honey-do” projects on his small farm. But being a firefighter is not something he could quit completely. He has already rejoined the Yelvington Volunteer Fire Station.

“It would kill me not to be a firefighter at all,” he said. “I just hope I can be an asset there.”

August 15, 2019 | 3:25 am

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