Jim Cason This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Welcome to Chronicle Online.com

   www.chronicleonline.com/articl - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/9/2004   Last Visited: 1/9/2004

   Jim Cason has spent a lifetime fighting fire and now he's bringing his passion for the profession to Citrus County.
   
   The county has hired Cason, 43, to fill the fire services director position left vacant in May when Mike Schlaudraff retired.
   ...
   Cason said he realizes he has a tough road ahead. The county's Fire Services Division has lacked a top leader since Schlaudraff's departure and he hopes to remedy that right away.
   
   "I plan to work with the team leaders to make sure all bases are covered," he said. "From that point I'm going to let my leaders evolve on their own."
   
   Cason said his top priority is to get response times down to about 5 minutes.
   
   "The 10-, 12-, 15-minute response times, that's what hurting us," he said.
   
   Cason said with an all-volunteer force, it takes time for the firefighters to leave their full-time jobs, get to the fire department, get suited up and get on the truck. Those motions are gobbling up too much time.
   
   "They're doing the best they can," he said. "It's not their fault."
   
   Cason said that if there were a few paid firefighters manning each department around the clock, the volunteers could meet the those paid firefighters and the truck at the scene and suit up there.
   
   "It would save a tremendous amount of time," he said.
   
   Cason said he grew up in Fort White, a small town in northern Florida. At the age of 18 he became a volunteer firefighter at the High Springs Fire Department. He continued his volunteer status for the next five years while putting himself through fire college in Ocala. He would later earn an associate's degree in fire science administration from St. Petersburg Junior College.
   
   During that time, Cason had a full-time industrial job, but fire kept calling his name. When he was laid off in his mid-20s, Cason pursued his passion and got a paid fire-fighting job in Starke.
   
   He worked there a year before moving to the Tampa Bay community of Seminole, where he stayed for 17 years.
   
   "I worked my way up the ranks pretty fast there," he said.
   
   He soon became the administrative lieutenant in the training division in 1990. Two years later his position was upgraded to training officer. He stayed in that role until 2000.
   
   While his job title changed, Cason said he never stopped responding to fires and working in the field.
   
   He said his job entailed the assessment of firefighter safety at fire scenes. He offered this example: firefighters respond to a blaze and go at the flames with a hose. After a couple of minutes, if the fire isn't down, safety becomes a key concern. Cason said he would have to make the call on whether another water line or more manpower is needed. Or maybe he decides to have his team back off before the building collapses.
   
   His responsibilities equated to a lot of split-second decisions. That's one of the things Cason said makes him an effective leader.
   
   In addition to his duties with the Seminole Fire Department, Cason was a command staff officer for local hazardous materials and technical rescue teams. And he was the team captain of the Seminole Extrication Team, which freed trapped motorists in vehicle crashes.
   
   In 2000, Cason left Seminole for the Dunedin Fire Department in Pinellas County, where he served as a training officer at the district chief level until applying for the Citrus County job in November.
   
   Cason said he heard about the vacancy left by Schlaudraff's retirement last year when he brought some of his Dunedin firefighters to the Citrus County Fire Training Center for some practical exercises.
   
   "I would come up to Citrus and I met a lot of people. And I knew I loved the place. It reminded me a lot of home," he said.
   ...
   Cason said he loves Citrus County because it has small-town charm.
   
   "And you can actually go from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time," he said. "It's a real down-home atmosphere."
   
   Cason is still a newlywed, having married his wife, Wendy, on March 22. He has two stepchildren, 12-year-old Matt and 14-year-old Shannon; and a daughter, 24-year-old Jennifer. There's also a golden Labrador retriever named Skeeter (after his boat) and an English springer spaniel named Sierra (after his pick-up truck).
   
   He's separated from his family for the time being and living in his fifth-wheel camper in Homosassa. His wife - who is a paramedic and also a firefighter - and her children plan to move to Citrus County at the end of the school year.
   
   Meanwhile, they've purchased property on Stage Coach Trail to build a home. Cason said he hopes to settle into Citrus County for at least 10 to 12 years.
   
   "Our family, we have bought into this wholeheartedly," he said.

2. 2. TERC USA Membership Application

   www.terc.org/memb.html - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/11/1999   Last Visited: 4/5/2002

   James W. Cason Dunedin Fire Department 1235 Alhambra Court, Palm Harbor, Florida 34683-6801 Phone : 727.789.8778 JWyles@aol.com

3. 3. State amateur event coming to Lafayette

   www.theadvertiser.com/sports/h - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/8/2004   Last Visited: 6/8/2004

   The event includes a noon lunch and a 1:30 p.m. tee time, and among the celebrity captains will be this year's Hall of Fame inductee class of former UL Lafayette track and field All-American and U.S. Olympian Hollis Conway, Leon Barmore, Will Clark, Alton "Red" Franklin, Albert Lewis, Tony Sardisco and Neil Smith, as well as former Hall inductees and celebrity captains Sam Mills, Y.A. Tittle, Grits Gresham, Pat Studstill, Scotty Robertson, Bo Lamar, Harold Porter, Frank Brian, Billy Joe Dupree, Charlie Hennigan, Jim Cason, Leo Sanford, Bobby Lowther, Scott Stoker and Mike McConathy.