After missing Montana, Spokane County Fire District 8 Chief Lonnie Rash is back for good

Spokane County Fire District 8 Fire Chief Lonnie Rash left his job in September to go home to Montana, where he was born and raised and had his first firefighting job. But once he arrived, he realized that Montana wasn’t home for him anymore – Spokane Valley and Fire District 8 is.

“I love Bozeman,” he said. “It’s just not the place I grew up. It’s different. You do have to step away sometimes to realize what you had and what you appreciate.”

Rash still has family in Montana, including an elderly father. He received offers to work as deputy chief and fire chief at the Central Valley Fire District, where he took his first job as a volunteer firefighter in 1988 and stayed until he left as a battalion chief in 2005 to take a job with District 8.

“I actually met with them several times and I turned them down twice,” he said.

But he decided to take their third offer because he felt like he needed to return to Montana. He announced his plans to retire from District 8 and put his house on the market, though he was still reluctant.

“I didn’t want to leave Fire District 8, necessarily,” he said. “I love it here. There was a pull to go back to Montana, back home.”

Rash said Central Valley Fire now has its own ambulance service, which it did not when he worked there previously, so he spent his time immersed in learning that aspect of the district.

“It was a very intense training opportunity,” he said.

But he never quite settled in. While he was closer to his father, he was further away from his sons, ages 18 and 20. He missed being close to his sons and missed his work at District 8.

Fire District 8 fire commissioner chair Lee Boling that he and Rash were in communication frequently as Rash advised the board of commissioners on searching for his replacement. The board was working to select a national firm to help with the search when they realized that Rash might be enticed to come back to District 8, Boling said.

They quickly made an offer to have Rash come back as fire chief, and Rash accepted. He returned to his job in November.

“It’s pretty simple in that we really didn’t want him to leave in the first place,” Boling said. “We were very eager to negotiate with him to get him to come back. We realized we could step right back in where we were and continue forward.”

Rash signed a five-year contract and took his house off the market. He also had never gotten around to filing his Washington state retirement paperwork, so he was able to return to work much as if he’d taken a leave of absence.

It was not the first time he had left District 8 before feeling the pull to come back. He left in 2012 to become a fire chief in Burlington, Washington. He found the area too busy for his liking and wanted to come back to the Spokane Valley area, but there wasn’t an opening at District 8, so he took a job as assistant chief of operations in Spokane County Fire District 4. That lasted until 2018, when he stepped into a vacant job as assistant chief of operations in District 8. He was promoted to fire chief in 2021.

Rash said he plans to stay at District 8 now that he realizes he’s home.

“It was the most right for me,” he said. “I love the people here. It’s a great organization. We have our identity as being a family-friendly, family-balanced group. The community has been very gracious to us when it comes to our funding. There’s a lot of potential with Fire District 8 going forward.”

Boling said he’s happy Rash agreed to return.

“He has a lot of skills and abilities, and a lot of training,” he said. “He has always been a member of District 8’s family, as far as I’m concerned.”