County to name Smith fire chief

Stephen Curran

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

The Clark County Fire Department will have one of its own at the helm after outgoing Chief Earl Greene retires early next year, officials announced Thursday.

Batallion Chief Steven Smith, 47, is expected to take over the Silver State's largest fire department gradually over the next six months. He has worked in Southern Nevada since 1980 and was one of the firefighters dispatched to fight the MGM Grand fire later that year that killed 87 people and injured another 679.

Almost 25 years later, Smith still remembers how he and fellow firefighters made it to the tragic blaze.

"We still had open-air cabs," he said, compared with the enclosed fire engines that now make up the fleets in almost every fire department. "We were like dogs with our noses in the wind."

Since then, Smith has been an engineer, a firefighter paramedic and a captain. He was promoted to batallion chief in 1997 and has coordinated the training, inspections, community service requests and staffing for 59 firefighters in nine stations, according to a statement provided by county officials.

Growth that continues to strain the department's resources remains his biggest challenge, Smith said.

"I think everybody knows that we're growing so fast," he said. "... I see the biggest challenge is, how do we provide the service with the resources that we have? I don't think I can go down to the county manager to ask for more resources until I prove that we're effective with the resources we have."

A former Marine, the Wisconsin native will oversee 25 fire stations and almost 600 firefighters covering a county the size of New Jersey. He holds three associate's degrees in fire-related fields from the Community College of Southern Nevada.

County Manager Thom Reilly said Smith's rise through the department's ranks gives him a unique understanding of Southern Nevada's challenges.

"I have really high expectations for Steve," Reilly said in a written statement. "He has been in the trenches for 25 years, has demonstrated the exceptional leadership capabilities and is held in high esteem by the men and women of the department."

Smith is expected to transition into Greene's job over the next six months. Greene, who has been chief since 1996, is expected to retire in February.

During his tenure, Greene established a program to train resort hotel personnel to use Automatic External Defibrillators and has helped disburse more than $20 million in state and federal grants. He also helped the department earn "accredited agency" status, making it was of 89 departments out of 18,000 nationwide to meet strict performance standards in planning, inspection, training and education, county officials said.

Greene holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Southwestern State College in Weatherford, Okla. He earns $145,000 a year, county spokesman Erik Pappa said.

Smith's salary was not finalized Thursday afternoon but will be "in the ballpark," Pappa added.