Get a group of firefighters together in any setting and ask them what they like about being a firefighter. It won’t be long before someone talks about the “fellowship.” They may use other terms — camaraderie, friendship, bonds — but firefighters feel that they are part of a unique group. Volunteers and career firefighters alike espouse it. I’d like to share a story about a firefighter who does more than talk about it — he lives it.
Dave Palumbo retired from Chesterfield Fire & EMS as a battalion chief on Jan. 1, 2001. But anyone who knows Dave knows that he really didn’t retire, he “re-fired.” He took his passion for people and service to others in some new directions while maintaining strong ties with the department. For example, he serves as a volunteer driver for the local chapter of the American Red Cross. Several days each week you can see Dave checking out one of the ARC vehicles (we let the ARC park their vehicles at the public safety training center) to make his rounds, taking senior citizens back and forth to their medical appointments.
Dave may have retired from CFEMS almost seven years ago, but he never turned in his membership card. You can be sure that he has every special CFEMS event on his calendar, from recruit-school graduations to retiree receptions. More importantly, he’s always there.
What is really special about Dave, however, is that he is actively present. Recently, the Old Dominion Professional Firefighters Burn Foundation held its annual golf tournament to raise funds for the Evans-Haynes Burn Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia. It was an unseasonably hot day, yet Dave was one of the first-arriving workers, showing up with his own pickup truck loaded with ice for the event. He stayed for the rest of the day, which lasted well after dark, filling coolers with ice and refreshments, delivering more ice to the coolers on the course, moving people around the course, and doing whatever else needed to be done. He was actively present.
Shortly after he retired, Dave found his real cause: construction of a memorial wall to honor CFEMS members who’d lost their lives in the service of others. Dave has been a champion of this cause in the greatest sense of the word, developing the idea, working with the architect on the design, raising the several hundred thousand dollars for the wall’s construction (no county funds are involved in the project), finding the contractors to do the work, and more. With the assistance of a handful of other committed souls, the construction of the wall — and the realization of Dave’s vision — is well under way on the grounds of Chesterfield County’s Eanes-Pittman Public Safety Training Center.
We frequently talk about the significance of role models in our profession and the influence they have on the development of young employees or members; those discussions are often in the context of professional or technical-skills development. But Dave Palumbo is a great role model for what fellowship really means within the American fire service.
