LOUISA -- Whenever Robert Dubé's career ends, no one will be able to say that he avoided challenges.

He left a Florida department he helped rehabilitate from being one of the worst in the state to come to central Virginia to start a department from scratch as Louisa County's first fire chief.

Dubé will have some experience to draw upon. His father, O.R. Dubé, was the first fire chief for Loudoun County in the 1970s. The younger Dubé started his career as a volunteer there at age 16.

In Louisa County, he's head of emergency services. He is also the first paid staffer for a department that will likely need more full-time, paid firefighters to help the volunteer companies during the day.

His challenge in Louisa will probably be nothing like the management blaze he unwittingly charged into at the Clearwater Fire Department in Florida.

During the early part of the decade, the department was cited for problems with equipment, training, personal conduct and substance abuse. The situation reached a breaking point with a fire that left two building occupants dead and five firefighters burned, said Jaime Geer, who was subsequently hired as chief.

"Several agencies studied the performance during the fire and indicated significant performance issues," Geer said. "They couldn't even conduct basic, high-rise firefighting."

Dubé arrived in Clearwater as a deputy chief in 2004 after 28 years with the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department, in which he'd risen to the rank of captain.

"I didn't know the extent of the issues until I got there," he said. "A month after I got the job, the chief retired. [Geer] cleaned house, and he and I put it all back together."

Geer credits Dubé's people-oriented leadership style working in the background to help fix the department while Geer handled the intense public scrutiny and prickly union relations.

"He had a sense that we needed to connect as a family instead of being all business -- which is what I tend to be."

Dubé helped implement new training, bring in new equipment and kept the department running as accountability standards rose. Clearwater turned over about a third of its personnel, Geer said.

In Fairfax County, Battalion Chief Dewey Perks recalled the same person-to-person emphasis in Dubé when he was there.

"He definitely uses a team approach," said Perks, who has known Dubé for 25 years.

Dubé started in Louisa County in early April, and in his first week there he met with the volunteers to learn the seven companies and their command system.

Ultimately, he envisions a mixed system of paid staff and volunteers as in Chesterfield and Hanover counties. The growing county expects more call volume, and one of Dubé challenges will be dealing with the nationwide volunteer decline by trying to recruit young firefighters from Louisa.

Louisa County High School has a promising program that introduces students to firefighting and emergency medical services, Dubé said.

"That gets local talent into the system," he said. "When they're already part of the community, they know their way around and they're happy to serve -- whether as a volunteer or [paid staff]."

Contact staff writer Calvin R. Trice at (540) 932-3674 or ctrice@timesdispatch.com