What Is A Firefighter?

A sad message reached me in my office last Friday. My buddy John Cudo of Taylor, Pennsylvania forwarded a very touching newspaper story to me. It was written by Rose Quinn of the Delaware County Times Newspaper, and it covered a topic most sad indeed.

You may recall the tragic death of Chris Kangas, a Junior Firefighter with the Brookhaven Volunteer Fire Department back on May 14, 2002. He died of head injuries suffered after being struck by a car while responding to the fire station on his bicycle. This incident struck a terribly responsive chord with me, for you see, I began my career in quite the same way.

I rode my bicycle to first aid calls as a member of the Freehold First Aid Cadets back in the spring of 1964. And then a few decades later, my daughter Katie began to ride with me to the firehouse to answer calls as a junior member of the Adelphia Fire Company. Chris