Grand Opening of Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department’s

Begin planning now for the 2012 Alaska Fire Conference

"Celebrating the 50^th Anniversary of the ASFA" 

In Sitka, Alaska September 17-22, 2012

50 years of Protecting the Last Frontier

Mark Barker has a limited number of the statues for sale.  Contact Mark if you are interested.  $600.00 each, they make great gifts and look good at the station.

Thanks to all of you!

ASFA Seat on Fire Standards Council Open

The ASFA seat on the Fire Standards Council Seat is now open.  Al Stevens has vacated the seat after accepting the job of Assistant Chief in Sitka.  If you are interested in serving on the board, please check out the Alaska State Boards and Commissions website. 

Member News

MEADOW LAKES — Assistant Fire Chief Jim Carnahan isn’t one to ask for charity.

 But when doctors told him he had nine ulcers in his stomach and needed his gallbladder removed, both of his families — the one he has at home and the one he has at the firehouse — did the asking for him.

 “I’m humbled by the entire experience,” Carnahan said. “I wish I could do it all myself and not have to bother anyone.”

 Capt. Shawn Rudnick, who serves under Carnahan in the West Lakes Fire Department, said he and Carnahan’s son, Kurtis Carnahan, have set up a bank account and are looking for donations.

 They’re going to raffle off a fire axe within the fire service and are looking into the possibility of some kind of community-wide event or raffle. Right now, people can donate to account No. 136311 FB at any Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union.

 Carnahan, who serves dinner to the firefighters every weekend, is kind of a mentor in the department.

 “I would describe him as a pretty laid back, mellow man who comes across with years of experience and knowledge,” Rudnick said. “He would be kind of like a grandpa or a father figure to most of the people, somebody you could go to.”

 On-call responders in the borough aren’t full-time employees and don’t have the same benefits as regular borough employees. Carnahan said that so far he’s had $8,700 or more in medical tests and his borough supplemental insurance has picked up $42 of that.

 He’s been told the surgery to remove his gallbladder will run five figures and neither of his families has any way to pay the tab.

 Jim Carnahan said firefighting has been a part of his life for decades. His dad helped start the department in Chugiak.

 “As a kid growing up there was always a fire truck parked in my yard,” he said.

 At age 21, living in the Valley and unemployed, he was watching TV. The show was “Emergency!” which followed the lives of Los Angeles responders Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto.

 Carnahan said his mom asked him why he didn’t just go sign up to be a firefighter; it might give him something to do. So he did. He talked to the fire chief. There weren’t even any forms to sign before he was responding to fires.

 “When I was young, like my son, it’s the adrenaline high” that motivated him, Carnahan said, nodding to Kurtis, who also rolls with West Lakes.

 Over the years motivations change, he said. The one that stays constant is the opportunity to help people.

 “I enjoy the aspect of helping out people when they’re in need,” Carnahan said. “I would hope that in my time of need someone would be there for me, too, whether it be a car crash or a heart attack.”

 Carnahan put in 12 years maintaining fire trucks for the Mat-Su Borough professionally. Before and after he took that job he responded as a firefighter. He served 29 years with Central Mat-Su and four with West Lakes. He’s retired from that maintenance job now, but still responds to fires like he always has.

 These days Carnahan spends a good deal of his time training the next generation. Carnahan likens it to a slide presentation. As you gain experience responding to emergencies, your brain takes a photograph, files it away in your mental slide tray. You access those slides on each new emergency, pulling out pictures of successful rescues and fires doused to show yourself how to address the current situation.

 “I try to use my slideshow to teach others in the fire services, because I believe if we don’t teach people to replace us, we’re doing a disservice to the fire service,” Carnahan said.

 And he has no plans to stop. He joked that, God willing and after he gets past this gallbladder thing, he plans to spend this twilight years rolling around the fire station in a wheelchair.

 “I’ll be hitting the side of the fire truck with my cane saying, ‘Get out the door, guys!’”