William Schmidt, Chief
Walker Fire Department
4343 Remembrance Road
Walker, MI 49544
(616) 791-6840
(616) 791-6898 - Fax

E-mail: BSCHMIDT@ci.walker.mi.us

Chief William Schmidt

Chief William Schmidt began his career in the Fire Service in 1969 with the Rolling Meadows Fire Department in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.  Rolling Meadows is a suburb of Chicago about 8 miles northwest of O’Hare International Airport.  The department was a combination department and when he retired in 1993 there were 45 career firefighter/paramedics and 8 paid on call firefighters with two fire stations serving 23,000 residents.  In addition to providing fire protection they also provide mobile intensive care/ALS ambulance service to the community.

In 1972 he became a State Certified Paramedic in the first pre-hospital mobile intensive care program in the State of Illinois.  Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois was the resource hospital and Dr. Stanley Zydlo was the first Project Medical Director.  Chief Schmidt served as the Medical Officer for the department for 19 years.

As a firefighter Bill participated in the development of the Illinois Fire Fighter Certification program as well as other State of Illinois fire service certifications through the Office of Standards and Education of the State Fire Marshal.  He served the department for five years as the Training officer.  He was promoted to Captain/Shift Commander and held that rank until his retirement in 1993. While in Rolling Meadows he completed the State of Illinois Certified Instructor Program and Fire Officer III certification.

Chief Schmidt was also active in the Northern Illinois Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team.  He has completed the EFO program through the National Fire Academy.

After leaving Rolling Meadows Chief Schmidt was appointed Fire Chief for the City of Walker, Michigan in August of 1993.  Walker is a city of about 20,000 people adjacent to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The fire department is a combination department of 7 fulltime personnel, a fulltime secretary and 60 paid on call personnel with 3 fire stations and 8 pieces of firefighting equipment.  Since becoming Chief he has initiated a fire prevention inspection and public education program and hired a full time fire prevention specialist to run that program.  He has also hired a full time deputy fire chief to assist in the running of the day to day operations of the fire department.

Chief Schmidt is active in several State fire service organizations and is past president of the Western Michigan Association of Fire Chiefs.