Chris Smith has always been interested in the fire service, but it took a long time before it became his vocation.

Smith, now the fire marshal and training officer at Clark County Fire Department, grew up in Olive Hill in Carter County. His introduction to firefighting came from the TV series “Emergency!” and watching the local volunteer fire department.

“Where I grew up, it was a close-knit community,” Smith said. “A lot of my friends’ fathers were firefighters. The fire department was very proactive in the community. I was on several fire scenes and saw these guys (and) how they served the community.”

After working for the Legislative Research Commission in Frankfort, and other jobs, after high school, Smith moved to Clark County in 1993 and slowly began getting involved in the community.

In 2004, Smith was volunteering with the Clark County Rescue Squad and learned the fire department was looking for volunteers. After spending a year as a volunteer, he was hired as a full-time firefighter and began working his way through the ranks of the fire department.

In October, Smith was promoted to the dual role of fire marshal and training officer, which also moved him from a schedule of 24 hours on duty and 48 off to working regular business hours five days a week. Smith said he misses being on the truck, but he loves the challenge of the new position.

“When I was on shift, every third day I had that challenge,” he said. “(Now) every day I have that challenge.”

Smith splits his time between his two roles.

“I have two days I try to do my fire marshal stuff,” he said. “One of the biggest things is doing to inspections at local businesses in the county’s district.”

The overriding concern is safety, he said. Secondly, it’s building relationships with those in the county.

The position also involves the department’s community outreach and education efforts, the department’s smoke detector program and others. The fire marshal is also responsible for investigating suspicious fires, he said, so he still gets calls to respond to fire scenes.

As the department’s training officer, Smith is responsible for making sure everyone gets their annual training hours, scheduling training sessions for the department, and learning himself.

To be certified as a firefighter in Kentucky, the state requires each firefighter to complete 400 hours of training. Additionally, each firefighter must complete 100 hours of annual training to maintain that certification, he said.

For Clark County Fire Department, that means keeping up with training for up to 21 people.

“It’s not that difficult to get 100 hours,” he said, “but I like to far exceed that.”

The firefighters train on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so Smith gets to work with each shift of firefighters. They also know those are the training days. Smith, though, is not the only instructor.

“All of our officers are required to be instructors,” he said. “It’s not me teaching the department. It’s the department teaching me. I’ll sit in on those classes. I learn something every day.”

Everything, he said, comes back to community whether within the department or in the county.

“It’s knowing my community and keeping it safe,” he said. “I also enjoy (that) I get to help our department grow and succeed with the training program. I love this job.”