(Red Oak, Iowa) – Officials with the Iowa Firefighters Association, Saturday night, presented The Fire Department of the Year Award, to members of the Red Oak Fire Department. The award – which was presented in Ames – is given to a department that significantly supports the Iowa Firefighters Association and the Fire Service in at least one of many areas such as fire prevention, legislation, convention, membership, etc.

The nomination addressed several attributes that the Red Oak Fire Department contributes:

• The ever-growing response area for Fire/EMS coverage of service.
• The extraordinary level of competency and assistance exhibited on Mutual Aid Fire Responses
• The overall contribution to the Fire Service through the continued support of training, logistical assistance to other departments, as well as fire ground competency.
  

  (Photo: L-R-Red Oak Fire Chief John Bruce, Captain Kenny Hamman, and Lt. Brian Hamman)

The Red Oak Fire Department is partnered with the Iowa Fire Service Training Bureau as one of the seven testing locations in the state, which allows firefighter students in the southwest Iowa portion of the state, a location to come to for certification testing to help eliminate the need to travel to Des Moines for testing. The partnership also allows our location to be available for various training events. The Red Oak Fire Department has also been able to assist a few other departments with logistical information. They are developing their department operations to be very similar to how Red Oak is designed (staffing, funding, response guidelines, etc.)

The award directly reflects every member of the Red Oak Fire Department. The amount of time each member dedicates to the department is astonishing. This is a combination of training, shift work, emergency responses, and special events. Each Firefighter possesses a mastery of expertise, and when you bring all those folks together, you have a genuinely outstanding fire department. This is also demonstrated by all the other departments that we get to work with. The Fire Department of the Year award is a direct reflection of each Firefighter and their families for the massive amount of sacrifice and support that they invest in making sure our communities are protected.

This is also a reflection of the support the Fire Department receives from the Red Oak Community, City Administration and Council, the surrounding communities, and the surrounding fire departments. The Red Oak Fire Department extends a heartfelt thank you to all of you for everything you have and do for our department!!!!