Chief Renshaw: An Ongoing Legacy In Storrs

STORRS, CT — Patch and T-Mobile are teaming up to present a look at responders who have built legacies and, in this case, ahat started as following a family legacy has turned into a current legacy both at the University of Connecticut and nationally.

Meet UConn interim fire chief Chris Renshaw.

In a recent UConn podcast, Renshaw said he grew up wanting to hold the torch to what his grandfather and his brothers had set — to give service above self and to do something for the greater good.

He added he had wanted to fight wildland fires ever since I was a little kid. In 1988.

"I watched on the news Yellowstone National Park burn, and it was, it was the central focus of the newscast for that summer. How wildfire was decimating this national park, and the people that were responding They reminded me, I think, in retrospect, of the sacrifices that the Greatest Generation did," he said.

So he is now part of the "mobile army of men and women" who camp in primitive conditions and fight wildfires in national park, in a mountain backdrop and in the woodlands.

He has also dedicated a career to fighting fires on colleges campuses.

UConn presents a very "urban environment," Renshaw said, but it is also host to a variety of events like athletic contests commencement and visits from prominent officials.

Said Renshaw, "Those special events occupy quite a bit of our operational tempo throughout the year. We have probably about 130 additional assignments because of those events. We are embedded with athletics. Some of it is because of our rapid response and providing good customer service for not only the attendees to any athletic events, but the actual athletes and the officials themselves. The structures that they’re having, these Athletic events in, like Gampel Pavilion, have fully functional alarm and suppression systems that, if every time, the hot dog cart in the corner boiled water or had a smoke condition, shut down an actual televised game, it would be a, an issue."

He added, "Commencement is most important weekend of the academic year ... couldn’t be UConn unless you were graduating students. Our folks are at every one of those venues for all the events, making sure not only life safety and, and the buildings are taken care of, but also occupancy issues with the fire marshal’s office, making sure that, the experience is not only successful for the university, but safe for everybody that’s visiting the campus as well."