First Black fire chief in California community reflects on career [Video]

Public service is a path that Rick Bartee seemed destined to take.“I knew I was going to be a servant,” the fire chief from Roseville, California, told sister station KCRA.Bartee spent much of his life in Phoenix when his father’s Air Force career landed there.He ran track, played football in high school and continued hitting the turf in college for a year until he got hurt.Deciding his next move was easy.“I knew that I was either going to be a police officer or a firefighter or going in the military,” he said.The Phoenix Fire Department hired him first as part of affirmative action, as he describes it.“I know in my academy when I did get hired, I had the lowest score in the academy class. I was probably the last one hired in the academy class,” he said. “But that wasn’t reflective of who I was.”Bartee can still remember experiences …