The Chief's Message
By Fire Chief Donald L. Cox
It is with great pride that I am honored with the privilege of writing this page. My admiration for the fire fighters and the administrative staff of our fire department exceeds my ability to leave a suitable message about the dedication of our team. I only wish the citizens of our community could understand the sacrifices and effort our personnel put forth in protecting lives and property in the Town of Menasha. Most of our staff are paid-on-call fire fighters. In other words, when they respond to emergencies, training exercises and special community events, they are away from normal family time and leisure activities. All of our fire fighters are certified with the State of Wisconsin in both fire fighter skills and First Responder (Emergency Medical) treatment. Training is a priority.
The Town of Menasha Fire Department is also blessed with some of the best and most modern fire apparatus & equipment in the Fox Cities. Our fire fighters strive to keep your apparatus clean and in a ready-response mode at all times. They truly understand the investment taxpayers put forth in being prepared from small-scale to large community-wide disasters.
Services have been greatly expanded in the past few years. In 1993 we purchased, through donated funding, a Life Safety House with three other area fire departments. Our Administrative Assistant, Susan Lamb, has expanded her duties untold times since 1992 to promote public education about fire & life safety. Our Fire Marshal, Lt. Olszewski, conducts over 1,200 original fire inspections every year in order to prevent fires and keep our community's buildings and places of employment safe. Prevention and Public Education is a very high priority in our service delivery. In 1997 we began providing First Responder service to over 400 emergency medical calls per year, supporting the primary provider in our area, Gold Cross Ambulance. This is truly a "neighbor helping neighbor" program as our First Responders are dispatched from their homes with medical equipment in order to be first on the scene helping stabilize injuries and life-threatening illnesses. In 1998, the First Responders became qualified to operate AEDs (automated external defibrillators) to help cardiac-related emergencies. 1998, our first JAWS unit was purchased and implemented to aid motorists in vehicle extrication incidents. The Town of Menasha Fire Department is the first fire department in the State of Wisconsin to seek accreditation through the IAFC/ICMA Accreditation Commission and hope to have the project completed by the year 2000. All of these accomplishments, plus many more, are the direct result of the quality of people associated with our department. It takes all fifty-three of us to accomplish these and continue to get better as time passes.
My family and I moved here in 1992 after having served in the fire service since 1970 in Iowa and Florida. We truly enjoy living and working here. The Town of Menasha has a tremendous future and with all affected parties participating in planning and development (citizens, municipal government, professional departments, business/industry leaders and visitors) we will be prepared to manage what lies before us.
If you should ever encounter any of our personnel, or have the need for our services I am confident that you will be treated with respect and professionalism. We always welcome comments and suggestions about our service delivery. If you are a resident or visitor in the Town of Menasha, this is your fire department and we want to serve you to the best of our ability. Lets us know how we are doing.
Respectfully submitted, Donald L. Cox - Fire Chief