Chief Steele honorary fire school dean

Van Wert independent/contributor content

Van Wert Fire Chief Jim Steele was recently named an honorary dean for the State Fire School. Chief Steel, who entered the fire service in 1976 as a volunteer firefighter with the Dunkirk Fire Department, became a full-time firefighter in 1979 with the Van Wert Fire Department. He was promoted to captain in 1988 and chief in 1997. He earned an associate’s degree in fire science from Hocking College in 1987 and a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1996.

He is a graduate of the OFCA Leadership Academy, OFCA Ohio Fire Executive Class I and is a recent graduate of the Blue Card Command Class.

Chief Steele was one of the original OFCA Connie O’Brian Scholarship Award winners in 1995, was the 2003 recipient of the Northwest Ohio Firefighters Association Meritorious Service Award and was named the 48th recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the OFCA in 2010.

He is part of the inaugural inductees to the order of Sleepless Knights, which symbolizes the dedication and commitment to increasing the competency and decreasing the complacency of the fire service.

The Van Wert fire chief currently serves as chairman of the State Fire Training Committee and, in that capacity, has been unwavering in his commitment to high quality standards, and has been an ardent supporter of State Fire School’s development of hybrid online/classroom delivery of the instructor and inspector classes.

Chief Steele was one of the originators of the OFCA’s Fire Officer 1 class, and currently instructs the Strategy and Tactics section. He also teaches Maxwell’s 21 Laws of Leadership for the Fire Service and is one of the assessors for the OFCA promotional testing, a reader in the Ohio Fire Executive program and serves on the Education Committee.

An instructor for more than 26 years, he was previously the course director for the State Fire School’s Industrial Fire Brigade Training class, and currently teaches live burn training in the school’s Fire Instructor Certification program.

Chief Steele has been married to his wife, Connie, for 28 years, and is the father of two grown children, Matthew and Molly. His father, Chief James B. Steele, was Honorary Dean of the State Fire School in 2004.