FIREWIRE Magazine Winter 2019: Celebrating 5 Years | Page 40

LETTERS FROM THE EDITORS: HEALTH & SAFETY BRENTON BAUM About FIREWIRE’s Value… Five years ago I asked to be a part of the newly established FIREWIRE editing team because “I am good at grammar and stuff.” Jeff and Ryan were gracious enough to allow me to be- come a part of the team and to help develop this publication. I have seen FIREWIRE morph into what I believe is a valuable part of both our union and our fire district. There are many aspects of what we have been doing with this magazine that I particularly appreciate. To start with, on a personal note, FIREWIRE serves as an excel- lent way to show my two sons exactly what I do at work. FIRE- WIRE is one of several magazines on my six-year old’s “reading list” that he specifically pulls out of the mail for himself. He is so content to flip through the magazine and see all of the pic- tures and actions shots that we have. He is very proud when he recognizes me in one of the pictures and it gives me an oppor- tunity to explain what I was doing at that particular time. Due to my current assignment at the fire camp, my kids do not have a lot of opportunity to visit me at work so this offers a happy medium. I certainly hope that FIREWIRE magazine allows you similar opportunities with your family members! As our union and fire district continue to become more estab- lished and more professional, it is necessary that we utilize multiple public relations platforms in order to educate and inform the public of our capabilities and accomplishments. I believe FIREWIRE has become effective at accomplishing this to varying degrees. Both our e-version and our print copies are available for consumption by whichever generation we are ap- pealing to. We have learned that, due to the nature of our pro- fession, pictures are often more appealing and more effective to communicate rather than lengthy and technical articles. We have also had the pleasure of getting some excellent action shots from both internal personnel and professional photogra- phers. FIREWIRE also serves to chronicle our department’s his- tory in present form rather than try to rebuild it at a later date. Additionally, I believe FIREWIRE has improved interdivisional communication by lessening the information threshold be- tween our geographies. It is often jokingly said that our different divisions can sometimes function as separate fire departments due to the physical separations that we have. This should not be the case though. One of my hopes is that through better exposure of each division’s activities this separation can be lessened. Please, if you have an article idea or a project that you would like to contribute to FIREWIRE, contact one of the editorial staff and we would be happy to see if it is a good fit and help facil- itate the process. Brenton Baum Assistant Editor CARE TEAM MEMBERS & FUNCTION BY DIVISION DIVISION 1 & 2- WEST & EAST VALLEY Dave Burkart, (LEAD) CHN236/PEER Pager #1150 Matt Anderson, CHN238/PEER Pager #1517 Kelly Carter, PEER Pablo Fernandez, CHN235/PEER Pager #1147 Andy Shipway, PEER Brenton Baum, PEER Daniel Arias, PEER Kellie Hoverman 760-954-8283 909-499-3701 909-266-3262 714-746-7503 909-732-3265 760-617-4046 909-964-7535 760-559-1657 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 760-220-3710 909-938-5448 909-557-0017 909-255-2964 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 909-519-6458 [email protected] 909-520-5173 760-954-3240 951-567-1700 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 909-815-1604 [email protected] DIVISION 3- MOUNTAINS BJ Myers, PEER Darrell Cornell, CHN - t */ PEER-t * Joey Webb, CHN-t*/PEER-t * Thom Wellman, CHN234/PEER Pager #1457 DIVISION 4- SOUTH DESERT Michael Murphy, PEER DIVISION 5 & 6- NORTH & HIGH DESERT Kelly Anderson, (LEAD) PEER Mike Okeson, PEER Ronald Walls, AC109/PEER Pager #1132 Pager #1454 DIVISION 11- TRAINING, EMS, SPEC OPS Michael Kordich, CHN-t*/PEER-t* Can use Division 1/2 & 5/6 CARE TEAM members as initial point of contact for Division 11 needs (* = “t” designates new members awaiting training and/or additional experience) (CHN = CHAPLAIN) 40 FIREWIRE • Five Year Anniversary Winter 2019 • FIREWIRE 41