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Tuesday January 20, 2015 Edition
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Looking Into The Lives Of Addison County Firefighters Association Members

Dividing his career between fighting and investigating fires, Robert Patterson served during the decades of intense change in the science of fighting fires.
photo by Photo Provided
Dividing his career between fighting and investigating fires, Robert Patterson served during the decades of intense change in the science of fighting fires.

Tuesday January 20, 2015

By Cookie Steponaitis

On Wednesday, January 21st several Addison County Firefighters will gather for the annual Addison County Firefighters Association (ACFA) dinner meeting where awards will be presented and congratulations bestowed in a room filled with a camaraderie that extends beyond the uniform, department and people and is obvious to everyone attending the event. It is a brotherhood and bond defining not only their volunteer lives but friendships as well. Present that evening are volunteers spanning three decades and people who have witnessed the greatest era of change in fire sciences in American history.
    One such person is Robert Patterson who joined the Lincoln Fire Department in February 1972. The town had experienced a bad house fire and Patterson was one of the townspeople who came forward to join the department. Patterson was nineteen at the time, lived near the station and responded to a request for younger members.
    Patterson became the Department Secretary in 1973, Assistant Fire Chief 1974 and was elected Lincoln Fire Chief in 1985 holding the position for ten years. Patterson has also served on county fire department committees over the past forty years and in the fire investigation unit. “I began my career with the state as an Assistant State Fire Marshal in 1982,” explained Patterson. “I recently retired in August with thirty-two years of state service. “
Robert Patterson found himself consistently taking classes in a field of service that is growing and changing. “Knowledge changed as the field evolved and the departments had to grow with it. I took every fire related course available that I could,” explain retired Fire Investigator Patterson.  “I felt it was important to gain all the knowledge I could if I was to lead the fire department and took the same approach with my job.  When I was Fire Chief I had many weeks I would average twenty-thirty hours working on fire department business including responding to incidents, training, maintaining equipment, paper work and requests from the public. For the last seven years of my career as an Assistant State Fire Marshal I was involved with fire investigation statewide.  The Division of Fire Safety partners with state police on fire investigations.  I was the supervisor of my unit so I was involved in most investigations of fatal fires that occurred.”
    Patterson feels many readers would be surprised to know the majority of fatal fires are preventable by simply having working smoke detectors that are properly located.  “The majority of fatal fires I attended either no smoke detectors were found, they were improperly located not giving occupants time to evacuate or detectors were inoperative due to false alarms or batteries were missing,” shared Patterson. “One year I did a survey of all residential fires we investigated and over two-thirds of them failed to have properly working smoke detectors.  Vermont is very lucky there are not more fatal fires than there are.”
    During his career there have been memorable gains with prevention efforts mainly due to the detection technology. Patterson also cited the conscious plan of fire departments to begin working with schools delivering safety messages as one key component of the success in reducing fire deaths. Added to that is the fact that modern homes are built airtight and loaded with plastics and not wood and steel as their counterparts were fifty years ago. “Plastics give off extremely toxic smoke and produce very hot fires which dramatically shortens evacuation time for occupants and adds to the challenge firefighters face in fighting those fires,” explained Patterson. “So firefighters are now subjected to a much greater health risk than years ago.  At the same time firefighters in general have much better firefighting and safety equipment then they did years ago to keep them protected.”
    While Patterson and other firefighters of his era have responded to literally hundreds of calls there are those that stand out in their minds and never leave them. Once such call happened early in his career and Patterson recollected, “While in route to work early one winter morning we had a call for a school bus versus car accident.  I was about fifteen minutes away but decided to return to town knowing we wouldn’t have many firefighters available that time of day.  There were only a few children on board the bus which was a good thing, but several ambulances were needed.  We got each of the victims loaded in the ambulances and one ambulance technician turn to me and said, ‘Bob, you’ve got to drive that ambulance to the hospital.’  I said ‘I can’t, I’m not certified to drive it.’ She said, ‘You have too. I drove it here alone and I have to tend to the two patients we have in the back.’ So I did.”
    Training and working side by side builds trust and supports the reality firefighters depend on each other whether on or off the job and they must get to know  people, share goals and experiences.  “When tragedy strikes,” concluded Patterson, “they confide in one another.  They see and deal with a lot of what the general public doesn’t see or understand.  Many firefighters stay involved with the fire service for decades and build friendships along the way.” The lives of the ACFA firefighters are intertwined with each other, the community, other first responders and rescue volunteers for whom it is a way of life of putting the needs of others first, trust in their own lives and those they work with in times of joy and tragedy.


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