About

I began working for the Elyria Fire department on July 2nd, 1989, progressing up through the ranks to Assistant Chief with the specific job title of Fire Marshal. As is typical for Fire Department members, in addition to Firefighting, I was involved in many “Specialty teams” (subdivisions) within the Fire Department including:

  • Emergency Medical Services, Hazardous Materials Incidents, 
  • Terrorist Incidents, Confined Space Rescue, Vehicle extrication, 
  • Water rescue, Swift water rescue, Rope Rescue, High-angle Rescue, 
  • Trench Rescue, Industrial/Machinery extrication, Electrical emergencies, 
  • Response to Natural Disasters, Natural Gas/Propane releases, 
  • Carbon Monoxide incidents, Fire Protection systems activations or malfunctions,
  •  Animal calls, Fire Prevention, Fire Code Enforcement,
  •  Public Fire Safety Education, Fire and Arson Investigations,
  •  Liaison with other Fire Departments.
  •  Liaison with other entities: Local, State, Federal, and Private.
  •  Internal (Fire Department) Training.
  •  and of course; response to many types of Fires and Explosions.

As Fire Marshal and Fire Investigator, I saw the need to put an increasing emphasis on the value of preventing the incident before it occurred. It became very obvious that Fire Prevention activities could reduce the occurrence and/or severity of the incidents, however could never completely eliminate them. With this in mind, I reverted to the number one priority of the Fire Service:   Life Safety. 

After retiring from the fire department (28 years, 3 months, and four days on the job), I took a job working for a Consulting Firm as a CFI (International Association of Arson Investigators, Certified Fire Investigator). This allowed me to further evaluate Fire Losses in an even more “forensic” sense. I continued to evaluate how the loss of property, and loss of life could have been prevented and how it could be prevented in the future. Keeping this in mind, I have developed this first video, which I believe addresses the major issue of safety for yourself and your family.

This video is not based on my research, but that of other agencies. My part is just to validate it from my experiences and pass it on.