Veteran Orange Fire Marshal Killed In Woodbridge Crash

ORANGE, CT — The town of Orange is grief-stricken this week over the sudden death of one of its best-known and beloved employees, Fire Marshal Tim Smith. He was killed Sunday in a crash in Woodbridge. Smith, a 30-year veteran of the Orange Volunteer Fire Department, was driving home after investigating the cause of a fire on Tyler City Road in Orange around 1 p.m. when he crashed into a tree, police said.

"The Orange Volunteer Fire Department and Orange Town employees are mourning the untimely passing of Tim Smith, our fire marshal," said Fire Chief Vaughan Dumas, who had been with Smith during the work on Tyler City Road.

"Tim was an invaluable member of the town's public safety corps and will be missed here in town and across the state," said First Selectman Jim Zeoli, who added that Smith's family requested privacy as they mourn their loss.

Woodbridge police said the crash happened at 4:47 p.m. Sunday on the Litchfield Turnpike south of Downs Road. Smith was driving south on the turnpike when he drove off the road and hit a tree, police said. An investigation is ongoing as to why he veered off the road.

"The Woodbridge Police Department extends its sympathy and condolences to the Smith family, the Orange Fire Marshal’s Office, and the Orange Volunteer Fire Department during this difficult time," police said in a statement.

Smith became a town employee in 1986 as a deputy fire marshal and rose to the fire marshal’s post in April 1989, according to the department. He was a certified state fire marshal and lived in Prospect.

Smith was also a fire service instructor for the Valley Regional Fire School, and he received an award from the International Association of Arson Investigators in 2015 for outstanding accomplishment in relation to an investigation of an arson fire on Golf Road.

Smith was known as a progressive and innovative fire official, according to Dumas, and he inaugurated the department's use of drones to investigate fires. He also implemented the use special software to track fires in town and report them to the state.

The Orange Volunteer Fire Department said with the "assistance of the Town of Orange, Connecticut, Police Department and the Connecticut State Police, the body of .... Smith was transported by the Deputy Fire Marshal, OVFD Car 1, and Engine 34 in a motorcade from Farmington to Milford. Along the route, the brothers and sisters from West Haven Professional Firefighters- IAFF Local 1198 and Milford Fire Department Milford, CT came out to show their respects. The Members of the OVFD paid great tribute to FM Smith as the motorcade passed by the Fire Marshals Office and Station 2."

Calling hours will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Cody White Funeral Home in Milford on Friday. The funeral mass will held at Holy Infant Church on Saturday at 10 a.m.