This news item expired on Thursday, July 5, 2018 so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.
Buncombe County would like to congratulate Kelly Hinz on her promotion as the City of Asheville’s Fire Marshal. The honor is a culmination of her 18-year career with the City. It also makes her the first female Fire Marshal in the County. It’s certainly not her distinguishing characteristic, but one she hopes will create inspiration within her industry and beyond. “I hope that this is not what I am known for, but that being the first female gives hope to other women and girls that they can achieve anything if they work hard, try to do their best in everything that they do, and never, never give up. I want to be known as an awesome Fire Marshal... I just happen to be female,” notes Kelly.
Kelly says she wants to hit the ground running. “With an average of 3,000 people losing their life to house fires and nearly 100 firefighter line of duty deaths per year across the United States, there is so much work to be done to help ensure people's safety,” she says.
Kelly adds that loving your occupation makes work easy. “On becoming Fire Marshal, I am able to live my true ambition. To live my life with purpose, to fight for what is right and fair, to make time to be kind, to take risks for things that matter, to help those in need, and to leave this earth a better place because of what I did and who I was," she says.
Kelly was officially sworn in as Fire Marshal on May 2, 2018. Congratulations again from all of us at Buncombe County.