Kettering fire chief retiring next month, replacement named
Thomas Butts to retire after 33 years of service to the community.
— The city’s fire KETTERING chief is set to retire next month and be replaced by his assistant.
Thomas Butts will retire Oct. 2 after more than 33 years of service to the Kettering community, being succeeded by Assistant Chief Mitchell Robbins, the city said.
The 55-year-old Butts, who has been fire chief since 2016, oversawthe department’s modernization plan that included the building and opening of four new fire stations, an estimated $30 million project, according to a city news release.
“His passion for fire services and public safety is admirable; and, his remarkable ability to connect with and empower people is unmatched,” Kettering City ManagerMark Schwieterman said in a statement.
From 2016 to 2018, the city openedStationsNos. 32onFarHills Avenue; 34onWoodmanDrive; 36, the department’s headquarters on Hempstead Station Drive; and 37 onWest Dorothy Lane.
Kettering’s previous fire stations were an average of more than 40 years old and lacked the space or land toallowforimprovements, city officials said. Those stationswere undersized formodern trucks, devoid of mixed-gender facilities for 24/7 operations and did not meetADA standards,
according to the city.
Robbins, 48, will be appointed the newchief immediately upon Butts’ retirement, the city said in an announcement Tuesday afternoon.
Robbins has served the Kettering Fire Department since 1999, holding the positions of firefighter/ paramedic, captain and battalion chief before earning his current title in 2016, the city said.
He is a graduate of the Ohio Fire Executive Program and Sinclair Community College, where he earned an associate’s degree in emergency medical services/ fire science.