Cherokee County Fire & Emergency ServiceSeptember - October Volume 18 - Issue 5

Recruits Get Back to the BasicsStory on page 8

The Fire Wire

The Fire WirePublished bi-monthly by Cherokee County Fire &

Emergency Services

Tim PratherFire Chief

Tim CavenderEditor

Eddie RobinsonAssistant Fire Chief

Shane WestField Operations Chief

Danny WestDivision Chief

Dean FloydDivision Chief

Chad ArpFire Marshal

Jill Mabley, M.D., FACEPMedical Director

Cherokee County Fire &Emergency Services

150 Chattin DrieCanton, GA 30115

Phone: (678) 493-4000Fax: (678) 493 4034

www.cherokeecountyfire.org

Office Hours: Monday through Friday8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Closed Saturday, Sunday and Holidays

ABOUT THE COVERFire recruits have been training hard this summer in preparation of becoming a full-time career firefighter. Story on page 8

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Improve the safety of your Halloween by following these tips from Cher-okee County Fire & Emergency Services: Costumes: When choosing a costume, stay away from billowing or long-trailing fabric. If you are making your own costume, choose materi-al that won’t easily ignite if it comes into contact with heat or flame.

Visibility: Provide children with flashlights to carry for lighting or glow sticks as part of their costumes. If your child is wearing a mask, make sure the eye holes are large enough so he/she can see clearly out of it.

Flammable decorations: Dried flowers, cornstalks and crepe paper are highly flammable. Keep these and other decorations well away from all open flames and heat sources, including light bulbs and heaters.

Candles/jack-o-lanterns: It is safest to use a glow stick or battery-op-erated candle in a jack-o-lantern. If you use a real candle, use ex-treme caution. When lighting candles inside jack-o-lanterns, use long fireplace-style matches or a utility lighter. If you choose to use candle decorations, make sure to keep them well attended at all times. Do not leave them near flammable objects or where trick-or-treaters may walk. Remind your children to avoid open flames. Make sure children are watched at all times when candles are lit.

Exits: Remember to keep exits clear of decorations, so nothing blocks escape routes.

Be Safe This Halloween

Volunteer Firefighter Graduation HeldCherokee County Fire & Emer-gency Services held a Volunteer Firefighter Graduation on Tuesday night, July 9th, at the Cherokee County Fire Training Center.

Sgt. Chris Martin, the volunteer training coordinator, welcomed guests and did the introductions. Fire chaplain, Dana McPherson, came forward to do the invocation, followed by the Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Service Honor Guard presenting the colors.

Before the presentation of the cer-tificates, Sgt. Martin announced the recipient of the J T Whidby Volunteer Service Excellence Award to Eric Powell. Whidby was a Volunteer Fire Chief for the county with 32 years of service. He passed away of March 31st, 2016, at the age of 75. Whidby’s

Receiving their certificates of completion are (left to right): Emmaus Bradshaw, Tony Cobbs, Christian Escalada, Sgt. Chris Martin, Volun-teer Firefighter Coordinator, Parker Rinehart, Colin Kennedy and Brice Futch. Not pictured: Eric Powell, Victoria Smith and Marc Sheridan.

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son, Jason, was in attendance to assist with the award presentation.

Cherokee County Assistant Fire Chief, Eddie Robinson, and Cherokee County Fire Chief, Tim Prather, came to the podium to say a few words to the graduates.

Receiving their Certificates of Completion were Emmaus Bradshaw, Tony Cobbs, Christian Escalada, Brice Futch, Colin Kennedy, Eric Powell, Parker Rinehart, Marc Sheridan and Victoria Smith.

Jason Whidby, son of J T Whidby, presented the J T Whidby Volunteer Service Excellence Award to Eric Powell. Powell was unable to attend so Keith Brooks (left) accepted the award on his behalf.

Cherokee County Fire and Emer-gency Services’ number one ad-vocate for teaching fire safety to pre-school children is Freddie the Fire Truck. Freddie is a fully ani-mated fire truck robot that moves, speaks, listens and sounds his siren, all by remote control.

Freddie visited with about 50 children and adults at Little Peo-ple’s Corner located on Lower Union Hill Road on August 23rd. Beth Elder and Kevin Bruce are Fire Safety Educators who work with Freddie to speak to the chil-dren about the importance of fire safety. With the help of Freddie, children learn about the difference between good fires and bad fires,

Freddie the Fire Truck Visits Little People’s Corner

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what to do when they hear a smoke alarm and to remember to “get out and stay out” during a fire emergen-cy.

After Freddie’s presentation, Fire Educator Bruce comes forward to talk with the children about firefighters and not to ever be afraid of them. Bruce puts on his firefighting gear to show the children what they look like when fighting fires. “It’s unfortunate, but children are often times killed because they hide from a firefighter and that’s why we want them to know that we are their friends and we are there to help,” stated Bruce.

According to Elder, they do approximately 30 visits with Freddie the Fire Truck each year.

If you would like to learn more about Freddie the Fire Truck, contact Beth Elder at eselder@cherokeega.com or Kevin Bruce at kmbruce@cherokeega.com. You can also make a request for an appearance by going to our website at www.cherokeecountyfire.org and click the Public Safety and Education tab and then click Freddie the Fire Truck Request.

Freddie the Fire Truck enjoys his visit with the children of Little People’s Corner Day Career.

Cherokee County Fire Educator, Kevin Bruce, teaches the children to never be afraid of a firefighter.

Several fire administration em-ployees went through the Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training on August 15th to learn how to do CPR, how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED) and what to do when some-one is choking.

Beth Elder, Fire and Life Safety Educator for Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services, taught the class for the employ-ees.

CPR is an emergency procedure combining rescue breathing and chest compressions in an effort to reverse cardiac arrest. CPR is a method to reactivate the heart in pumping blood through the body. An AED gives the heart an electric shock when someone’s heart has stopped (cardiac arrest).

Cherokee County Fire & Emergency ServicesAdministrative Staff Learns the Importance of CPR

Administrative staff recently went through a class to receive their CPR certification.

Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services understands the importance of keeping everyone up-to-date on CPR and AED training including those who work in the administra-tive offices. Learning the importance of CPR can save someone’s life in a time of an emergency.

Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services offers numerous CPR classes throughout the year. You can learn more about these classes by going to the website at www.cherokeecountyfire.org and scroll down to the “Events and Classes” section on the left-hand side of the page to see when the next class is being offered. If you would like more information about CPR classes, contact Beth Elder at eselder@chero-keega.com.

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Beth Elder trains the administra-tive staff on CPR.

Retirement of Fred Dobson is the End of an EraCherokee County Fire & Emer-gency Services hosted a dinner on July 8th at the Ball Ground Com-munity Center to honor Battalion Chief, Fred Dobson, who retired from the fire department after many years of service.

Dobson became a volunteer fire-fighter at the Little River Fire Sta-tion in Cherokee County in 1978. It was during this time, when the majority of Cherokee County was covered by volunteer firefighters who responded to the emergen-cy needs of its citizens. Several years later, Cherokee County worked with these departments and took them over in order to have full-time staffing which made response times better. It also allowed firefighters to have more extensive training in firefighting skills as well as emergency care,

Fred Dobson (right) receives his “bugle” award from Cherokee County Fire Chief, Tim Prather.

a long career as a firefighter in Cherokee County and when retired and he became the last of the original Little River firefighters to retire for the department

The night of his retirement celebration was Fred’s night as fellow firefighters, family and friends came to enjoy dinner and to honor the career of a man who loved helping people in a time of need. After the dinner, a slide-show presentation was shown and then Cher-okee County Fire Chief, Tim Prather, came forward to thank Dobson for his commitment and service to the citizens of Cherokee County. According to Chief Prather, “The comments on Dobson’s evaluations are a testament to his career. The comments stated that Dobson was never documented as being late and he was always on time. He is also a team player and does whatever it takes to get the job done and he is a good motivator and tries to maintain a good company atti-tude.”

Other speakers for the evening included Shane Dob-son, a nephew of Fred who is a Deputy Fire Chief in Dekalb County, former Cherokee County Fire Chief

too. As the changes occurred, several of the volunteer firefighters would later become full-time firefighters for Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services. One of these firefighters was Fred Dobson. Dobson had

Former Cherokee County Fire Chief, Raymond Gunnin, speaks about Fred’s early years with the fire department.

Story Continues on page 86

and current county commissioner, Raymond Gunnin, Battalion Chief, Brian Ward, Battalion Chief, Ryan McElwee, former Battalion Chief, Johnny Wilkins and Captain Keith Berryman. Assistant Fire Chief, Eddie Robinson, came forward with one of Chief Dobson’s original fire department shirts when he worked at Little River. Plans are to have the shirt mounted and placed on display at the Fire Training Center.

At the end of the program, Fred came forward to say a few words. He called his wife, Patti, to the podium and gave her a kiss and thanked her for her support during all these years. Fred also shared some memories and thanked everyone for coming out to his retirement cele-bration.

We congratulate Fred Dobson on his retirement and we thank him for his many years of service to the citizens of Cherokee County.

Story Continues on page 8

Retirement of Fred Dobson is the End of an Era(continued)

Fred Dobson holds up his old Lit-tle River Fire Department shirt.

A student from Freedom Middle School delivered stuffed an-imals to the headquarters office of Cherokee County Fire & Emergency Services on August 26th.

Camden Browning said that he wanted to do this project as a junior member of the Beta Club. The Jr. Beta Club is a national honor society. National requirements for membership include credible achievement, commendable attitude, and worthy char-acter.

“I wanted to collect these stuffed animals for children whose house has burned down or something bad has happened to them and I just wanted them to have something that would comfort them,” stated the 13-year-old student. Firefighters will normally keep a stuffed animal in their fire truck or ambulance to help ease the fear that a child might be going through during an emergency.

Our sincere thanks to this exceptional young man for your support of our local firefighters and for your concern for children during a time of need

Student Collects Stuffed Animals for Children

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Field Operations Chief, Shane West, thanks Camden Browning.

The latest group of fire recruits have been at the Cherokee County Fire Training Center during the summer months to learn about firefighting techniques, equipment use and being physically fit. The recruits are put through an extensive physical training program that includes doing push-ups, sit-ups and even a 2 mile run. “We do physical training every morning for one hour and after that we do skills and drills in gear to condition them to be able to work fires in their gear,” stated Training Coordinator Jim Laughlin.

They have also had training with the fire department’s most basic tools, the fire hose and ladder. According to Sgt. Chris Martin, also a training coordinator, "The recruits are learning the basics like hose management, hose dragging, connecting hoses to a fire hydrant and raising ladders."

The recruits have also had classroom instruction to gain some familiarization with some of the tools and equipment including working with the jaws-of-life during a vehicle extrication. From the classroom, the re-cruits take what they learn and go outside to receive some actual hands-on training.

Training continues for a few more months before graduation in November.

Recruits Train During the Summer Months to Become Firefighters

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Becoming FirefighterSTRONG!