A note from our founder (OFN001) on the "birth" of Ohio Fire News...

Several years ago I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to go through months worth of testing and treatments. In the meantime my EMT-First Responder certification expired and I needed to get some CE under my belt to get it back. Well I searched and searched and had an EXTREMELY difficult time finding information on courses that were available. I though to myself, “Why doesn't someone have a web site that I can go to?”

A few months later I got a call from a fellow firefighter asking me why I wasn’t at the Spaghetti Dinner that our neighboring volunteer fire department held… Well I simply forgot. I thought to myself, “Why doesn’t someone have a site where I can sign up to get reminders about these things?”

Well two weeks later I returned from an out of town trip to find out that a local firefighter had been killed on the job. The LODD happened while I was out of town. If I would have known, I would have returned for the funeral. But how could I have found out? Well in today’s world no one is far from their email and I checked mine every day… “Why didn’t someone send me an email?” I asked myself…

That was the straw that broke the camels back… I wasn’t going to wait around for someone else to put together a site to do all this… I was going to start it myself!

After almost a year of planning... and with the help of an EXTREMLEY talented Webmaster... Ohio Fire News was born!

I truly hope that this web site will prove to be invaluable for Ohio firefighters and an indelible resource for Ohio fire news!

Sincerely,

John Whitinger, Founder