Public service is a path that Rick Bartee seemed destined to take.“I knew I was going to be a servant,” the Roseville fire chief told KCRA 3.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 at his first fire station in the 80s. "To have a person who would walk in the room and toss bananas on you and say. 'I’m sure you eat those, don’t you?'” he said.Bartee pushed through it, holding every rank in the Phoenix Fire Department.Ultimately, he was promoted to the rank of deputy chief, but his career climb wasn’t easy."I got on the captain’s list to be promoted there in Phoenix," he said. "I had a senior captain, a well-respected captain, come up to me once and say, ‘You know why you’re so high on the list don’t you?' I said, ‘Because I scored well, and I worked very hard to get here?' He says, (tapping me on my hand), ‘Because of this,'” indicating it was because of the color of his skin. Bartee retired after more than 30 years in Phoenix.He and his family then moved to Roseville, where he became the first African-American fire chief for the city, where there are 130 firefighters.Fire runs in his blood.Bartee’s son is a fire captain; he has several nephews who are firefighters and two of his brothers retired from fire service. The lack of diversity in fire departments across the county isn’t lost on him. That’s why recruiting is an important part of his role.“I’ve had times where I’ve had minorities tell us I’m not going to get a four-year degree just to be a firefighter,” Bartee said. “Not realizing that the job pays well as it does, the opportunity for you to give back, the opportunity for promotion, and then, while you’re being a firefighter, if you want to become a doctor, a lawyer, or whatever they’re going to pay for your education, they’re going to assist you to get where you have to get.”Bartee is passionate about giving children a better life. Over the years, he’s opened his home to about 50 foster children. “Giving children a home and a place where they may be able to grow and flourish is important for everybody, but to actually open up your doors and actually bring them in is different,” he said.Despite balancing family time, coaching football and leading the Roseville Fire Department, Bartee is often called away from home.He’s on the federal response team for urban search and rescue.Challenge coins he keeps in his office represent some of who he’s encountered.He’s met and briefed presidents and has responded to places like Texas in 2003 after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, New York after 9/11 and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.Most recently, he led a team of 500, spending 24 days in Lahaina after the devastating wildfires in Hawaii.“Being a firefighter, those opportunities are there to be able to be nationally known, and nationally recognized, or just to have national spotlights that you can be involved in for incidents as a firefighter,” he said. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.