YOUR AD HERE »

PCFD firefighter retires after 26 years

There’s something about being on the other side of the fire tape that still makes Ken Smith smile after 26 years.

When talking about his unlikely career as a Park City firefighter, Smith’s eyes brighten behind his black-rimmed glasses and he occasionally grins beneath his mustache.

He can’t seem to describe what motivates him when he is in his fire gear holding the nozzle, but he likens it to what drives musicians and artists to perform.

"There is this at any given moment right now I could get tested to 100 percent of my ability and that potential exists every minute that you are here," Smith said. "You constantly have to ask yourself, ‘can I deal with whatever happens?’ because when the stuff hits the fan and society doesn’t know who to call, they call the fire department."

Smith, a fire engineer, recently completed his final shift with the Park City Fire District, completing 26 years of service. There were no tears or bittersweet goodbyes.

"I’m not that gone. I will still be acting as a consultant to their apparatus committee and I will still be working in the trenches with a lot of the guys," Smith said. "I have no sadness about this. None at all. It’s like I just don’t have to go there every 10 days."

‘I don’t have time for that’

Smith joined the Park City Fire District in February 1989, when there were only four men on shift at a time. Now it’s more than 25. At first, Smith had little interest in joining, but a next door neighbor "hounded" him, he says.

"My neighbor next door was one of the career guys and he was on the volunteer ambulance so he was always hounding me and I was like, ‘I don’t have time for that,’" Smith said. "One day he said here’s an application, fill it out, you are going to do this. So I did and they accepted me as a volunteer and I learned I really loved it. I always had a little interest in doing it because I watched Emergency! and John Gage in the 70s."

Smith was still working as a truck and diesel mechanic for Questar Gas in Salt Lake City and lived in Highland Estates.

In 1996, he considered quitting his job and becoming a full-time firefighter. However, with his kids entering college, he couldn’t afford it.

"Being a firefighter had become part of me at that point," Smith said. "I’ve never been a real spectator in life. I watch something for a while and I either don’t care about it or want to do it and that’s the end of that. I think that’s a lot of this."

Once his kids finished college several years later, he "pulled the trigger," he says.

Personal ghosts

Over the years, Smith has responded to hundreds of calls that have had various outcomes and effects on the veteran firefighter.

"For us we deal with what is somewhat routine, but for them that may be the worst day of their life and if you can make that better in any way that’s huge," Smith said. "On the downside, when it doesn’t go well you can have the biggest bouts of depression for a few days that you’ve ever felt."

Luckily there are very few of those, Smith said. And when it does happen, he treats the situation as a learning opportunity.

"There have been some bad days and if we could have changed what we did we could have changed the outcome. They are in the back of your head and sometimes they come visit when they feel like it. They are your own personal ghosts and we have some big ones. The best you can hope to do is move forward and use that as a lesson so if you are ever in a similar situation you can make that change," Smith said.

Final shift

On his final shift as a Park City firefighter, Smith says he went to Snow Park Lodge at Deer Valley to convince a woman who had been bitten by a bug to go to the hospital.

"That’s what I did my last set and that’s not unusual for Park City clientele," Smith said.

Not quite ready to retire from the fire district, Smith will continue to serve as the North Summit Fire District chief. He became involved with the district in 2002, but started responding when he and his wife built a home in Tollgate Canyon in 2012.

Smith will be responsible for the county’s largest fire district, which services 500-square-miles and includes 56 miles of Interstate 80.

"I’m at that point where I can just focus on this and I have so much more impact in my position here," he said. "I’m not ready to leave the fire service and just walk away and not do this anymore."

He will continue to teach EMT classes at Park City High School and remain a consultant to the Park City Fire District apparatus committee.

Bob Zanetti, assistant chief of the Park City Fire District, started his career with Smith in 1989. Zanetti said Smith has mentored some of the newer firefighters and they will have "some big shoes to fill."

"We will move forward, but he will definitely be missed. Ken had a real appreciation for the EMS side of things and he had a real passion for that. He was a great EMT. One of the best," Zanetti said.

Paul Hewitt, Park City Fire District chief, said the district is a "great fire organization due in no small part" to Smith.

"Ken now takes his wealth of firefighting expertise to the citizens of the North Summit Fire District as their newest chief," Hewitt said. "We look forward to continuing to work with Ken in providing public safety for the citizens of Summit County."

As long as Smith can "walk a quarter of a mile with five gallons of water and a tool in my hand," full retirement is still a long ways off.

"Some people are musicians and that’s how they see themselves. I see myself as a fire fighter. Someone once said that you’ll never work a day in life if you do something you enjoy. Not to say there haven’t been days where I’ve been like, ‘why the hell did I ever do this,’ but it still is just a part of who you are and it makes life worth living," Smith said.

Summit County


See more

Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Park City and Summit County make the Park Record's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.