Author Archives: Gary Menard

Firefighter Byrd was born and raised in Miami Florida. He graduated from Miami Lakes Technical School in 2009 and moved to Georgia to pursue a career in firefighting. He worked as a volunteer firefighter in Metter Georgia for three years, … Continue reading →

Firefighter Diamond was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and raised in Miami, Florida. He attended Robert Morgan High School to study his second passion, music. He went on to attend Miami-Dade College for Paramedics/Fire. Immediately after obtaining his EMT certification, he … Continue reading →

The following words were written by Captain Violante, who insisted they would require heavy editing. We didn’t want to cut a thing from it. “I grew up in Tallahassee Florida with a German mother and Italian father on 13 acres, … Continue reading →

Cooking is such a part of the holidays that we rarely see how dangerous it can actually be. Many of the alarms, structure fires and injuries that we see are the result of accidents in the kitchen. Take a moment … Continue reading →

Lieutenant Jennifer Ross of the Decatur Police Department shared the following with us: “On Monday, November 14, 2016, Governor Nathan Deal issued an executive order banning the use of fireworks in 110 Georgia counties to include DeKalb County due to … Continue reading →

We’ve been intending to introduce our outstanding and dedicated Citizens Assisting Public Safety members for quite some time…so without further delay, Gwyneth Butera! “I was in the first Fire CAPS class … I heard about the program when I was … Continue reading →

REDRAW THE BALANCE A special firefighter sent me this article about a young girl who wanted to be a firefighter for Halloween. The article sparked some conversation over different experiences adult female firefighters have had. It is 2016, and sometimes, … Continue reading →

This year Decatur Fire Department is hosting another Holiday Food Drive. We have always received enormous amount of community involvement and we would like to have Decatur’s young citizens participate as well. Decatur Fire is extending a friendly competition among … Continue reading →

Smoke Alarm Blitz October 2016 is done and we want to thank all of our FORTY SIX amazing volunteers! We had help from Georgia State University students, Decatur High JROTC and National Honors Society, Emory University SORT team, Church of … Continue reading →

  We all know how much the kids (and parents) look forward to Halloween. Everyone is excited to get out there and see the costumes and the decorations and the kids are thinking of nothing but how much candy they’ll … Continue reading →