Former Bainbridge fire chief remembered as tough, fair

Monday, November 26, 2018
Mike Smith

BAINBRIDGE — Two former colleagues remember the Bainbridge Volunteer Fire Department as a well-oiled machine during the tenure of former Chief Mike Smith.

Retired from the department since 2011, Smith died Friday in a head-on collision in Hendricks County. 

The Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department reports that Smith was southbound on State Road 39, north of County Road 625 North, when a northbound passenger car crossed the centerline for an unknown reason, colliding with Smith’s vehicle.

Smith was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other driver, 18-year-old Kaylee Tuttle of Shelbyville, was airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital.

The sheriff’s office reports that Tuttle died as a result of her injuries on Sunday.

No cause of the crash had been determined as of Monday morning.

Smith spent 31 years as a member of the fire department, 15 of them as chief, before he retired in 2011.

Russ Evans was on the department with Smith for approximately the first half of his tenure before Evans and family moved to Greencastle in 1995.

Having watched Smith move up through the ranks, including five or six years as chief, Evans remembers Smith as a taskmaster.

“He was a disciplinarian, I guess was the best way to describe him,” Evans recalled. “He was strict. There was no gray area. When we got to a scene, you were assigned to a job, you did it.”

Things were cut and dried under Smith, and it worked.

“There wasn’t any, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ We had a very disciplined group of men and a couple of women at the time,” Evans said. “We didn’t even have to talk to each other. He just said, ‘I want this, and this and this,’ and it was done.”

Mark Hoke, who joined the department in 1988 and remains and active member to this day, echoed these sentiments.

“One thing about Mike when he was chief, he was fairly no-nonsense,” Hoke said. “When he was the head of the scene, you knew it. You knew when he was very upset or when it was time to chill.”

Hoke recalls that this occasionally led to some colorful words from the chief.

“Everything was either going good or it was going to heck in a handbasket,” Hoke said.

While this no-nonsense approach made for some raw feelings at times, Evans remembers it mainly made the department work very well.

“We took care of our own,” Evans said.  “If you made a mistake, Mike would call you on it. We had some spirited fire meetings over the years. I guess you could describe us as a fraternity, would be the best way. If we did good, we patted each other on the back. If we didn’t, we hashed it out.”

Hoke also recalled a poise under pressure that is essential in the kinds of situations fire departments are called to respond. One example was when a car hit a tanker at U.S. 231 and U.S. 36 some time around the year 2000.

“While we were on the way out there, the tank blew up and it was kind of a wide, spread out area,” Hoke recalled. “Mike got on the scene and took command. He was very good at taking command, getting people in the places they needed to be, calling for assistance. There were probably 11 departments there and he was pretty unfazed.”

A call like the one that claimed Smith’s life is familiar to firefighters and other emergency workers. That doesn’t make them any easier to process, especially when they claim someone you know.

“We handled those runs — that’s what we did,” Evans said. “It’s awful. I told people on Saturday that my stomach was still in knots. And it still is (on Monday) and it’s going to be a while before I’m over it.”

Since leaving the department 23 years ago, Evans has remained active in the Putnam County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) to this day, meaning he never entirely lost touch with his old department.

“We were good friends. I didn’t see a lot of him after I left Bainbridge, but I still had contact with those guys through the EMA,” Evans said. “We spent a lot of time together on scenes while we were away from our family.

“It’s like losing a family member.”

As a member of the Bainbridge Fire Department family, Hoke believes Smith did just about every job on the department at one time or another.

“He probably served as every line officer that Bainbridge had and every corporate officer,” Hoke said “He loved the community, he lived in the community and he did everything he could to make the department better.”

That love of community spread beyond the fire department, as Smith also served two terms on the Bainbridge Town Council, and at least one year as council president.

“He just took the Bainbridge community under his wing for the better part of 30 years and served it in whatever way he could,” Hoke said.

For its part, the fire department also issued a statement regarding the loss, making the following statement on Facebook Friday evening, “Bainbridge Fire would like to wish the family of our former chief, Michael Smith, all of our love and condolences at this time. Mike was and will always be remembered for his exemplary service to BVFD and this community.”

Though his years of service made Smith well-known in local firefighting circles, his procession to burial will be kept simple, according to the wishes of Smith and his family. 

Just one Bainbridge truck — Engine 23 — will lead the way Thursday from Hopkins-Rector Funeral Home in Greencastle to Clinton Falls Cemetery.

Even the choice of truck is significant, as Smith designed the engine/tanker as well as starting the acquisition process.

Smith even gave the truck it’s nickname of “Casper,” so named because it was the department’s first white truck. The rest of the fleet is also white now.

The Greencastle Fire Department will also have its tower truck at the cemetery displaying an American flag.

Visitation will be at the funeral home, 4 Percy Julian Dr., Greencastle, from 4-8 p.m. Wednesday. The service will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at the funeral home.

View the full obituary of Mike Smith here.

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  • This really bothers me to no end in this day and age. I see so many people driving with their head down and not looking at the road or street while driving. It is obvious to me she was not a responsible driver who caused a fatal accident that took two lives needlessly. What a shame. What a shame.

    -- Posted by donantonio on Tue, Nov 27, 2018, at 5:37 PM
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