ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The public information officer of any organization is a big job.
PIOs are responsible not only for communicating information from an organization but serving as its face for the community. When that organization is a police department, city council or, as in this case, a fire station, the PIO is who navigates the public through tragedy and toward safety.
Kelley Klope has been the PIO for the Asheville Fire Department for 28 years.
On Jan. 1, 2025, Klope is retiring.
The most striking thing about that decision is the youthfulness and energy Klope exudes. While the new year may see the end of her career at AFD, at 53, she feels young as ever.
“I’m 53 and I’ll be 54 at the end of January,” Klope said. “Whatever you wanna say, that’s young or old, I still feel young.”
In a profession that often takes while its workers give – cancer is the leading cause of occupational death among firefighters – Klope brought life to her fire station as a firefighter, educator, inspector and social media guru, to name just a few of her roles.
“I started working for Asheville Fire Department in 1996. September of ’96,” Klope recalled. “Started as a firefighter, went through their academy, full certified firefighter, and have maintained that certification throughout my career.”
It wasn’t long before Klope began to climb the fire ladder to more and more responsibility.
“I started gaining certifications, from my advanced firefighter to level two instructor. I got my fire and life safety educator, all the courses for it, and I became their fire and life safety educator,” Klope proudly reminisced.
In that position, Klope went out into the community, teaching kids, elders and everyone in-between the importance of fire safety. While she taught stop, drop and roll, she continued to find new roles at AFD.
There was no stopping Klope.
“As a fire and life safety educator, I not only educated but I coordinated events. A lot of times they want the big red truck, right? So I would coordinate getting the big red truck to the school,” Klope said. “I spent many years pulling a fire safety trailer that allowed kids to go through and learn fire safety messages within each of the rooms.”
In a moment of connection for me that seemed routinely familiar for Klope, I realized that I had been through that exact trailer when I was growing up.
“You might have been one of my kids. Probably,” Klope responded, nonchalant.
The list of vital fire safety lessons Klope brought to the community during her time at AFD is staggering. Klope was modest about her role in keeping Asheville safe. It’s simply a part of her personality, something she takes as a given.
“When I look at the big picture, when I’m around friends or around other community members, other people, you have a fight/flight,” Klope said. “If somebody’s hurt or something, there’s some kind of situation going on, are you the one that runs to it to help or are you the one that stands back?”
You have one guess as to which one Klope is.
“It’s a running joke in my amazing group of friends,” Klope said. “That I go along because I’m the one that keeps them safe. I’m the one that goes along because I’m the one that’s gonna make sure things work. I’m the one that’s gonna start the fire, put the fires out at a campground. I’m gonna make sure all the equipment works. I’m gonna just, you know, drive the vehicles, whatever it is.”
She did the same thing as a kid.
“I do remember often as a little kid, my mom said I always catered to the black sheep of the school. I always gravitated to that person to help them get through something,” Klope recollected. “My parents got divorced when I was really young, and so I felt like I kind of went out on my own, and just fended for myself and was super independent, super young. I think that kind of molded me to be a certain way moving forward.”
Klope’s independent spirit and desire to seek out ways she can help was a valuable asset for the AFD. In fact, Klope is who came up with the idea for an AFD PIO in the first place.
“There came a point, 1999 or early 2000, I approached our chiefs and said, hey, there’s other departments that have this public information officer. Do you want me to start doing that?” Klope said. “It was not actually in a job title. They just said, sure, go for it.”
The job looks a lot different today than it did then. 20 years ago, Klope had to travel to fires, take notes, type them up, print them out and fax them to local media. Today, remote data collection and an emailed press release do the trick.
That isn’t to say that Klope’s job has become less relevant in 2024. In fact, she said, the PIO position has become more important than ever in an age when social media can spread inaccurate news like wildfire.
“People were starting to tell the stories and it wasn’t always the right story or it wasn’t all the facts, so you really wanted it to come from an official source,” Klope said. “I had to get ahead of all of them and start using the cell phones, start pushing out information on Twitter and Facebook.”
For awhile, Klope was balancing her unofficial position as the AFD PIO with her official fire and life safety job. As social media became more prevalent, the PIO job kept getting bigger. By 2013, Klope became the PIO full time.
“I felt like that could open bigger doors down the road, becoming a public information officer and being able to do bigger things upon retirement,” Klope said. “At that time, I didn’t know retirement was gonna come this quick.”
That sentiment, that after 30 years, retirement snuck up on her, sums up just how much Klope loved her job.
“I definitely am proud. When I started, there were, it was me and another woman in the academy, and there were only six women at the Asheville Fire Department. There were only six,” she emphasized. “We have paved the way for a lot of things to happen.”
Today, there are 16 women working at AFD. Klope is still close friends with her five original coworkers. Their bond is even immortalized in their 2007 second-place win in the Firefighter’s Combat Challenge League, a competitive five-event relay race where firefighters test their mettle against their peers and the clock.
Klope seems to be beloved among her peers. As we walked through the station, she greeted other colleagues with a breezy familiarity. She will be missed, even if she told me that her office decorations had already been tabbed and claimed like a firefighter’s estate sale.
Even after 28 years, it appeared hard for her to cut ties with the station completely.
“I’m open to coming back if they needed a contract worker or something like that, because again, I’m leaving on such a high note that there’s no disgruntled feelings whatsoever. I still love it here,” Klope admitted. “I am very honored and privileged that I got to work here.”
Even so, another part of Klope seemed ready to say goodbye. The fact that many firefighters grapple with sicknesses like cancer after retirement was on her mind when she made the decision to leave.
“I’m very healthy and I’m grateful for that. I’ve seen a lot of unfortunate situations with people who have retired from here who don’t make it very long. They’ve died of cancer or other health reasons,” Klope said.
“When you asked, you know, was this a sudden retirement decision, it was and it wasn’t. I knew I wanted to, but the more I think about it, that I am young and agile and able to go and do things for the next many years, I’d rather take that opportunity now because you never know what could happen.”
Klope shared that one of her best friends, a member of the core six AFD women who competed on the Combat Challenge team, died from cancer at 59 years old.
“It really makes you think about what’s important in life,” Klope said. “I still love it here, but I also know there’s more that I could be doing with my life, and I’ve spent more than half my life here.”
What comes next for Klope will likely be outside of the firefighting business.
“I’m proud to say I’m an Asheville firefighter, even though I don’t think it defines me. I have a great life outside of the fire department,” Klope said.
Klope has a large group of friends. She has a dog. She has dreams and ambitions of traveling, which began before she moved to Asheville in the 90s and are free to flourish now.
“I’m very passionate about going out West and I love going to these dude ranches, and going to a ranch and working with horses,” Klope shared. “My dream come true would probably be living out somewhere Montana area.”
Yet, the ever cautious and conscientious firefighter is taking a beat before riding into the sunset.
“Right now, I’m just gonna have it play out a little and see what falls into place,” Klope said.
Kelley Klope’s last day at the Asheville Fire Department was yesterday, Thursday, Dec. 19. Beginning in the first week of January, the AFD will begin to look for someone to fill her role.
For the first time, the AFD Public Information Officer may be someone’s official title.
Kelley Klope is to thank for that, as well as three decades of putting out fires, literal or metaphorical, in Asheville, N.C.
For more information about the Asheville Fire Department, visit www.ashevillenc.gov/department/fire.
Kelley Klope may be leaving the Asheville Fire Department, but she has left her permanent mark on the station.