BLAZE OF GLORY FIRE CHIEF RETIRING AFTER 35 HOT YEARS.Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer BURBANK - When Burbank Fire Chief Mike Davis retires this summer, he will miss the fire station camaraderie and the adrenaline adrenaline (ədrĕn`əlĭn, –lēn): see epinephrine. rush of 35 years of fires, rescues, train crashes, and other life-and-death calls. Although he expects to stay active in the International Association of Fire Chiefs The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) is a network of more than 12,000 chief fire and emergency officers.[1] The Association was established in 1873.[1] The Executive Director is Mark W. Light. and may fill in as an interim fire chief somewhere in California, retirement is unlikely to hold the thrills of the firefighting 1. firefighting - What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational problems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and I spent the whole afternoon fighting fires." 2. life. ``Nobody wants to see a fire, but we know we're going to see them,'' said Davis, whose last day will be June 30. ``And this is what we signed up for.'' Davis, 63, played minor league professional football before joining the Burbank Fire Department in 1969. Firefighting was somewhat of a natural choice for him because his grandfather William, an emigrant EMIGRANT. One who quits his country for any lawful reason, with a design to settle elsewhere, and who takes his family and property, if he has any, with him. Vatt. b. 1, c. 19, Sec. 224. from Ireland, was fire chief for Walla Walla Walla Walla (wŏl`ə wŏl`ə), city (1990 pop. 26,478), seat of Walla Walla co., SE Wash., at the junction of the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek, near the Oregon line; inc. 1862. , Wash. ``I think I could have been a lot of things in my life. But I think that I made a conscious choice to be a firefighter, and when I did I wanted to go to the extreme ultimate ends of my career and go as far as I could,'' said Davis, who has lived in Burbank since he was appointed chief in 1990. A month and a half after Davis became a battalion chief in 1980, he had to direct firefighting efforts against a brush fire in the Burbank hills that ended up burning for 2 1/2 days. That was a ``nervous time,'' Davis said. But the department kept the fire from burning a single structure, with the help of other fire departments and a weather change. ``We can protect structures and lives, but ultimately Mother Nature is what helps us put those fires out. A wind-driven fire on a hot Santa Ana wind The Santa Ana winds (or Santana winds) are warm, dry winds that characteristically appear in Southern California weather during autumn and early winter. Meteorology day is almost impossible to put out,'' he said. On March 5, 2000, a Southwest Airlines This article is about the American airline. For the former Japanese airline, see Japan Transocean Air. For the British airline, see Air Southwest. Southwest Airlines Co. Boeing 737 flight overran o·ver·ran v. Past tense of overrun. the runway after touchdown, smashed through a fence across Hollywood Way and stopped at a gas station. Passengers were injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. but none died. Burbank Police Chief Thomas Hoefel said Davis handled the emergency well. ``I remember showing up at that scene and seeing Mike Davis standing right there near the plane ready to take any action he needed, and staying there all night to make sure everything ran smoothly,'' Hoefel said. Hoefel, who lives about a block away from Davis, said Davis is a chief who ``leads by example.'' Assistant Fire Chief Norm Stockton said that when he joined the Burbank Fire Department in 1978, Davis was his truck captain. ``He was a pretty good captain,'' Stockton said. ``He would ladder the buildings, and he would be making sure the roof was safe before we got up there. ``He's not afraid to take charge, and when something needs to be done he gets it done,'' Stockton said. Davis said that when he first joined the department, firefighters were only expected to battle fires. Now, the department has paramedics, hazmat teams, and an urban search-and-rescue function, plus firefighters must prepare for the threat of a terrorist attack. Alex Dobuzinskis, (818) 546-3304 alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Burbank Fire Chief Mike Davis will be retiring this summer after serving 35 years with the department. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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