Randy Smith Retires After 30 Years With Framingham Fire

May 5, 1985 was one of the happiest days of Randy Smith’s life.

It was on that day 30 years ago, he began his career as a Framingham firefighter assigned to Engine 1.

1985 was also the year he first saved someone’s life.

While working as a firefighter/EMT, Smith and another firefighter manually performed CPR on a man, who had a heart attack.

”He survived,” recalled Smith, who said he doesn’t remember every life he saved over the past 30 years but the first one is still vivid.

Yesterday, Smith retired from the department as the town’s Assistant Fire Marshal.

He chose Tuesday, June 9 to retire, as it was his oldest brother Richard’s birthday.

Richard was the first of three brothers in the family to join the Framingham Fire Department.

He loved the job so much he talked middle brother Michael into joining the department.

“And Michael talked me into joining the department,” said Smith.

Randy is the last of the three brothers to retire.

Smith became the assistant fire marshal in Framingham in 2006.

He started out in fire prevention, where he learned the fire codes and the fire laws.

“It gives me a good feeling to enforce the fire codes,” said Smith.

He said the job of assistant fire marshal is to protect the public and to help the firefighters, by enforcing the state’s fire code and investigating causes of fires.

“Randy always had the safety of the firefighters in mind,” said Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Burns.

Enforcing the codes, helps the firefighters, explained Smith.

“We will miss him,” said Framingham Fire Chief Gary Daugherty. “He leaves with a lot of institutional memory.”

“Safety was foremost in Randy’s mind.” said Daugherty. “Day-t0-Day, no one cared more about the safety of the citizens of Framingham and this department, than him.”

Smith described his life as a firefighter as “very stressful,” but “very rewarding.”

He said what he will miss the most is “working with the guys.”

So what is next for Smith?

“I want to purchase a piece of property in New Hampshire,” said Smith. “And do some farm work.”