Volunteer firefighters and town employees in Orange (CT) were reeling from the loss of long-time Fire Marshal Tim Smith, who died on January 19, 2020, after investigating a fire in a local home.
Cheif Vaughan Dumas said Smith was called to a structure fire on Tyler City Road around 1320 to determine the cause and origin of the fire. He had completed that task and was returning home when he was involved in a motor vehicle accident in Woodbridge.
Smith was a member of the Orange Volunteer Fire Department for more than 30 years. He became a town employee in 1986 as a Deputy Fire Marshal and rose to the Fire Marshal’s post in April 1989.
In addition to being a certified state fire marshal, Smith was a fire service instructor for the Valley Regional Fire School. He received an award from the International Association of Arson Investigators in 2015 for outstanding accomplishment in relation to an investigation of an arson fire on Golf Road.
Smith was known as a progressive and innovative fire official. He inaugurated the use of drones to investigate fires. He also implemented the use special software to track fires in town and report them to the state. His family has requested privacy as they mourn their loss, said Zeoli.
– Submitted by Doug Fenichel
