Rob has been involved in the Fire Service in Thurston County for almost 20 years. He joined the former Fire District #11 Littlerock Fire Rescue in 2003 as a Volunteer, and in 2008 was hired as a Career Firefighter/EMT with West Thurston RFA. At that same time he assumed duties as the district Wildland Coordinator and Decontamination Unit Coordinator. Five years later in 2013, Rob was promoted to Lieutenant where he was also assigned to the district Safety Officer Position. Rob’s passion for education and training provided continued opportunities for advancement, and in 2016 he was promoted to Fire Training Captain where he assumed training responsibilities for WTRFA career and volunteer staff. Rob also served as Vice Chair of the Thurston County Training Officers for several years and led many county-wide training events during that time. In 2020, Rob was promoted to Assistant Chief of Operations and Training and then elevated to his current position as Interim Fire Chief on July 1, 2022.

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Rob holds a Bachelor of Arts from Washington State University as well as several certifications in Fire Sciences. He completed the King County Officer Development Academy in 2016, holds numerous International Fire Service Accreditation Congress certifications, and has completed several National Fire Academy courses. Rob is a certified Blue Card Incident Commander, IFSAC evaluator and served as the Vice President of Southwest FOOLS International for several years.

Outside of work, Rob volunteers his time to participate as a live Fire Instructor at the Washington State Firefighters Association annual fire school in Wenatchee. He is married to his wife of 25 years and has two teenage boys. In his spare time, Rob enjoys spending time with family in the mountains or at the beach, supporting his favorite football and baseball teams, hiking, golfing, sharing an occasional shark dive experience with his youngest son, and shuttling the boys to baseball tournaments.

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Robert joined the fire service in 1986, becoming a member of the Grand Mound Fire Department – District #14 at the age of 16. In 1989, he was hired as a Public Safety Telecommunicator with Thurston County 911 where he worked for 11 years. While with Fire District #14 he held the rank of firefighter, Lieutenant, Battalion Chief and served as the department’s training officer.

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Robert has also worked for American Medical Response, the Department of Natural Resources and the State Fire Academy in North Bend. In May of 2000, Robert was hired as the Fire Chief by Thurston County Fire District #1 in Rochester. In the position of Fire Chief he successfully merged District #14 into District #1 in 2002, and helped create the fire based BLS transport program for the area.

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In 2008, he began working on the regional fire authority program with Fire District #11. During 2007, he was a part of the planning and implementation team that resulted in the successful bond vote that provided for a new firehouse for District #1, as well as being a part of the successful regional fire authority vote in 2009.

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The development of an emergency communication and coordination center in the new firehouse to handle local and regional disasters such as windstorms, snow and ice and flooding events, was a result of his planning. Robert holds numerous certifications for the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress and the National Fire Academy, as well as other State levels, and is also a member of Region 3 FEMA, Type 3 Incident Management Team.

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INTERIM FIRE CHIEF
Rob Smith

fire chief 

(Retired June 30th, 2022)

Russ Kaleiwahea

FIRE ACADEMY

WTRFA FIRE ACADEMY STUDENTS 

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Charles Ault - 

PREACADEMY CLASS

WTRFA'S NEW ADDITIONS

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Timothy Fox

Grace Blocher

Brian Fagerness

Garrett Glenn

Brian Marty

Julio Vargas

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