The Pampa Fire Department recently celebrated the promotion of five of its crew members, marking an impressive milestone for the department since the Covid pandemic.
Promoted were: Ben Glover to Captain, Matt Albracht to Equipment Operator, Brendan Grant to Equipment Operator, Colt Curnett to Equipment Operator, and Dalton Hudson to Firefighter.
Chief Kasey Presson expressed how proud he was of his crew, and despite the toll Covid caused for not just their department, but for all first responders, and the fact that everyone is still reeling from the affects even years later, they have remained steadfast in their mission of service.
“It’s really just hard to believe that Covid is a thing of the distant past, but during the course of Covid, it didn’t stop people from retiring or resigning, and fire academies weren’t running which meant there weren’t a lot of recruits out there for us to bring in,” Kasey said. “Our staffing was pulled very thin during that. Coming out of Covid, the academy started running again, but the demand was still in other places just like it was here too. It became a hotly-contested race to get recruits. We were thankful we were able to grab some, but a lot of them were very young and inexperienced. You don’t want to take a person who is 19 years old who’s only been out of high school a year and make them a captain right away. You have to build those people up and this is a byproduct of that.”
“We’re doing a good job of filling our staff, and we’re happy and proud that we’re getting them raised up right and getting to promote them. We’re getting a slew of them and we might have a couple more coming.”
Earning a higher rank doesn’t just happen overnight, or even a few months, and everyone is different. There’s plenty of training to be completed, both hands-on and written, and an individual has to truly want it and work hard for it. And that’s just what these five crew members did.
“It’s really dependent on the person,” Kasey said. “For us, we really like to have someone who has at least two years in the rank below before they’re eligible to test for the next one. There’s a written test procedure, physical agility processes-it’s pretty rigid.”
“You don’t want to push people too fast and put them in roles they’re uncomfortable with. We want them to grow into them rather than drag them in kicking and screaming.”
“We’re a small department, and the Pampa Fire Department runs the smoothest when everybody can do everybody’s job. I can’t take a firefighter and expect him to do the job of a captain, but a captain can do a firefighter’s job. You get that sweet spot right in the middle when you’re an equipment operator, where they can do the job of a firefighter and they can also step up and do the job of a captain. So when you get all these people promoted into the proper positions, it hits a higher gear. That’s what we have now-a department with a crew that’s ready to roll 24/7 who are able to do the job and not miss any beats.”
Congratulations to Ben, Matt, Brenden, Colt and Dalton on your promotions, and thank every single one of you for the tremendous work you do for our community!
