GFB News Magazine

A lifetime of service

by Jay Stone
News Writer

Posted on April 24, 2025 5:43 AM

From appearances, Calvin Smith has had two passions in his life. One is his wife Mary, to whom he was married for 62 years before she died in 2021.

The other is the Comer Fire Department (CFD), one of 11 volunteer fire stations situated around Madison County. Smith became a volunteer fireman in 1965 and kept going through the decades, ultimately serving 56 years.

“There was a need for help, and we didn’t have one [a fire department],” Smith said, his speech halting because of a type of Parkinson’s Disease. His daughter, Renee Moon, provided light translation.

Calvin Smith wearing his last fire helmet, a memento of his fire service. / Photo by Jay Stone

These days, Smith, now 88, can be found at Brookside Manor Nursing Home in Commerce. He still keeps Mary and CFD close.

He has photos of Mary, whom he met at a Farm Bureau dance.

“I guess she liked my looks,” Smith said with a smile.

Smith had a 200-acre cattle farm, tending a herd of up to 120 head when he was away from his day job as an accountant with the local telephone company. Fellow cattle producer Corey Clements now leases the land now from Smith. Clements tries to visit him once a week.

Clements, also a farmer/firefighter, said the couple was inseparable. When Smith was on the farm, Mary was always with him. She even accompanied Calvin to the occasional fire, providing support for the fire crew, giving them water and providing wet cloths to help them cool off.

Smith’s last fire helmet is on display in his room, ready to wear for the occasional photo. He wears his ISO3 baseball cap and t-shirt proudly, commemorating CFD achieving the ISO 3 rating.

ISO stands for Insurance Services Organization, a group that calculates the ratings as a way to assess firefighting readiness. The ratings range from 1 to 10, with 1 being the best. It is rare for a volunteer fire department to earn a 3 rating. The ISO ratings have an impact on local insurance rates, so an ISO 3 means savings for residents in the Comer community.

During all that time, in addition to fighting fires, Smith worked to convince community leaders to invest in equipment for CFD.

The firehouse is a testament to the Comer community’s commitment to maintaining a high level of fire preparedness. So, too, is the CFD’s latest major acquisition, a fire service truck that carries firefighters’ gear to emergency scenes. When CFD got the truck in 2023 the firefighters made sure to drive it to Brookside, where Clements brought Smith out in a wheelchair so he could see it.

Comer firefighters Jason Fortson, left, and Charlie Burroughs, right, during a visit with Calvin Smith to show him the newest fire vehicle in the CFD fleet. / Photo courtesy of Corey Clements.

“He was the oldest active fireman in this county,” said fellow farmer/firefighter Corey Clements. “He is a man I have admired and looked up to my whole life.”

Smith played a pivotal role in CFD earning the ISO 3 rating, Clements said, noting that to celebrate the achievement, the entire firefighting staff at CFB bought the t-shirts and hats at no expense to taxpayers.

Smith’s name is on a marker at the CFD flagpole commemorating the dedication of the CFB firehouse, a modern prototypical structure for firefighting crews, complete with a kitchen, firefighter lodging, meeting rooms and more.

Through the years, Smith said he was involved in one fire where he and his fellow firefighters retrieved the bodies of two people killed in a fire. There was also a train derailment where the train caught on fire not far from a local fertilizer plant.

Even when Smith wasn’t going out on fire calls, he looked for ways to continue helping with CFD operations. He’d monitor the scanner, and if there was a fire call he knew would bring trucks through the crossroad near his house, he’d run out into the road and get crossing traffic to stop so the fire crews could cruise through without stopping.

“Anything to save them time,” he said.

Look for our feature on farmer/firefighters in the upcoming issue of Georgia Farm Bureu News.