Orange County Fire Rescue

Growing up as the son of a small town volunteer fire chief, I was exposed to the fire service at an early age. Exposed isn't the right word for it, immersed is better. I practically grew up in the fire station. I would play the part of the trapped kid for the firefighters' rescue training. Family vacations were scheduled so we could attend a firefi... ghting convention. The sound of the fire radio was as constant a sound in my home as the hum of the refrigerator. Occasionally, after a late night fire, the phone would ring while dad was taking a well deserved rest. It was the reporter from the local newspaper wanting the story of the night's fire. Not wanting to wake dad, I'd tell him what I knew; not knowing at that time I would later make a living out of very similar conversations. I never considered being a firefighter as a career, because in small towns firefighting wasn't a job- it was a way you gave back to the community. I knew I needed to pursue a career path and that's when the radio bug bit. I spent my high school years working at the local radio stations. One time I was on the scene of a house fire as a volunteer when I realized it was nearly 6AM. I quickly dashed down to the radio station for my morning shift, turned on the transmitter, and reported the important news story that day- a major house fire had the main road through town shut down. I was watching a news report out of Los Angeles one evening and saw a firefighter on TV with the letters P-I-O on his helmet. I thought I knew a lot about firefighting, but here was a term I never saw. I quickly pulled one of my dad's incident command textbooks from the shelf and learned what a Public Information Officer was. I thought that was ideal! A combination of my love of broadcasting and firefighting, where do I sign up! Unfortunately, those PIOs I saw on TV were high ranking officers with big city fire departments and living in a small town, I put that thought out of my head. One of my college professors, a retired Associate Press editor, was impressed ...Read More