Volunteer Firefighter Spotlight – Robert Smith

April 25, 2024

Robert Smith is 96 years old and a founding member of Clear Spring Fire-Rescue in Greenville County. The foundation of his life is built on hard, honest work. He doesn’t get around the way he used to, but he’s still active on the department.

When asked why he’s still volunteering after all this time, Robert answered bluntly, “I’d rather be helping them than them having to help me.”

Robert has seen a lot of change in his lifetime, both in the fire service and in Simpsonville. It is a far cry from the early days of Clear Spring, then known as East Simpsonville, when volunteering might mean an overnight stay at the station just to keep trucks in service.

“We had to heat the building with a wood heater to keep the trucks from freezing,” Robert remembers. “On Saturdays, I was the only one that had a chain saw and a truck, and we would go out and cut wood enough to last a week.”

Firefighters at Clear Spring Fire-Rescue now have a state-of-the-art station, no wood-burning stove and extra manual labor necessary. After decades of providing critical services under conditions many could never fathom today, Robert is in awe the resources firefighters have.

“The biggest change is this building… I saw it going up and said, ‘What in the world?’ I never thought I’d see anything like this,” he said.

“Anybody that’s been here any length of time knows who Robert is, knows what Robert is about, and the care that he had just to show up and give a lending hand,” remarked Clear Spring Fire-Rescue Chief Larry Kardos. Their paths crossed in 2005 when Chief Kardos first joined the department.

“Just to sit down and talk with somebody who’s been with it from the beginning has always been cool,” Chief Kardos said of his friendship with Robert.

Before a big-time budget that allowed for the new station, Robert and the other east Simpsonville volunteers were operating on the bare minimum – and what sometimes felt like less.

“We were slack on money… when we first started out, it was donations,” Robert remembered. But the lack of money for the department didn’t dissuade Robert’s passion for firefighting, nor did the middle of the night calls or that one Thanksgiving Day when he was on a call ‘til midnight.

Robert’s daughter, Lois, recalls her dad’s dedication to the department. “Almost every day when we would sit down to eat, ‘Well, let me grab a piece of cornbread, I’ll be back when I get back,’” she said with a smile and small shake of her head.

It’s people like Robert who volunteer their time and skills that allows the fire department to be woven into the fabric of the community. Because he cared so deeply for his fellow man, Robert sacrificed an immeasurable amount of time away from his wife (for whom he “fell for like a ton of bricks”), family, farm, animals, and garden. And he would do it all again if given the chance.

“Having the people that are willing to give back and give their time, it’s a sense of something bigger,” Chief Kardos said of Robert and the 16 volunteers at Clear Spring.

At the end of the day, Robert is a simple man. When asked what he loved the most about the fire department, Robert replied, “Dragging hose and getting on the end of it and putting fire out.”