Page 113 - History of the Colton Fire Department

come not only common place but the women has become • Establishment of a State Certified Heavy Rescue
a very respected partner or as they say in the fire service, Company and Urban Search and Rescue Team.
brother or sister. As this transition was taking place, fire • Construction of a new fire training tower.
departments had to quickly look at their facilities and ti-
tles. You were no longer a Fireman but a Firefighter 1999
and the badges needed to reflect that. There had to be According to the National Fire Protection Asso-
separate facilities for privacy. Lisa Pinson was hired as ciation as of 2010, 71 percent of firefighters in the United
Colton’s First Female Firefighter/Paramedic. After a few States are volunteers. I don’t believe those figures will
years, Lisa moved to northern California. be altered much in the future. Volunteers created our fire
In 2005 Annalisa Laube was hired as a Firefighter departments across this United States and the nation will
Medic. She was in Colton’s Explorer Post in the 90’s. continue to rely heavily on the volunteer system. The
Being an Explorer is one way to find out if this is a career latest equipment is often purchased with fund raisers and
that you might like. Annalisa was a motivated worker donations. One of the oldest traditions and events in the
that sent herself through the Paramedic program and the fire service that communities would look forward to, was
Fire Academy. She tested for Colton and scored number the Annual Firefighters’ Ball. This tradition originated
1 on the list. as a fund raiser for the Volunteer Programs that were es-
tablished across the country. Support and funds were
dependant on the community they lived in. This was one
1996 way to not only raise money to support their fire depart-
Tom Hendrix began his career with the Colton ment but to show their appreciation for the community’s
Fire Department in September of 1973 as a firefighter. He volunteers that might risk their own life to protect or save
was sent by he department to the second Paramedic Pro- another. Eventually, many departments would lose the
gram in 1976 and worked his way through the ranks as time, money or energy to promote a Firefighters Ball.
Engineer, Captain, and Battalion Chief. He was assigned I’m sure there have been many events and Firefighter
as Acting Fire Chief in 1996, and promoted to Fire Chief Balls that the Colton Fire Department has not document-
in 1998 as Colton’s 7th full time Chief. ed. The 14 documented Firefighter Balls in Colton are…
Tom Hendrix had been very active in both state 1891, 1892, 1893
and local levels becoming a member of the California 1920
Fire Chiefs’ Association, the California State Training 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959
Officers’ Association, and the San Bernardino County 1997, 1998, 1999
Haz-Mat Responders’ Association. As a Colton Fire De- Dennis Bickers and Brent Bailey was involved in
partment representative, he has been elected to serve as: organizing the last 3 Firefighter Balls for Colton. Den-
nis and Brent were working at station 4 when they be-
gan talking about the fact that they didn’t know the last
time Colton or any other local city had a Firefighters Ball.
With the support of Chief Hendrix They began laying the
• San Bernardino County Fire Chiefs’ Association ground work for the first Firefighters Ball since 1959.
(Past President; Vice President; Secretary) The entire department came together with their support
• San Bernardino County Fire Training Officers’ and enthusiasm to make the Colton’s Firefighter Ball a
Association (Past President; Vice President; huge success. Many of the surrounding cities were in at-
Secretary) tendance. The last 3 Firefighters’ Balls had an average of
• San Bernardino County Haz-Mat Responders’ 400 people in attendance.
Association (San Bernardino County Fire Chiefs’ The primary goal was to reunite many of the de-
Liaison) partments in the area with the community. The tickets
During his tenure as Fire Chief, Tom Hendrix believes would be inexpensive in order to have more attendance.
that a few of his primary accomplishments have been: Any money that would be raised would be donated to
• Expansion of the Fire Explorer Post the Loma Linda Children Hospital. Dennis design the
• Establishment of a Community Emergency logo and graphics. As entertainment Dennis would also
Response Team created a video production displayed on 2 large screens.
• Development of the SWAT Paramedic Concept One was a heart tug about the kids we would be
• Creation of a Fire Department Arson Team raising money for and the other was fire action 113