IN THEIR WORDS: What public officials do for us. Fire Chief Josh Waldo, Bozeman, MT

The making and putting out of fires has always been with us. The Romans created what might’ve been the first municipal-type fire department. Later, night-fire watches were instituted in colonial America’s larger cities. A devastating fire in Boston in 1679 led to the formation of the first paid fire department in North America, with the first volunteer fire company formed in Philadelphia in 1736. Its first volunteer chief? Benjamin Franklin, of course!

These days, there are nearly 30,000 fire departments in the US. About 19,000 are all volunteer and around 5,300 are mostly volunteer. The remainder are career or mostly career. Among them is the Bozeman, Montana Fire Department. In this episode of IN THEIR WORDS, we’re honored to be joined by its Fire Chief – Josh Waldo -- who also serves as the President of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Join us as Chief Waldo discusses how the Bozeman FD serves its community, as well as handling fire challenges related to climate change and advocating for fire departments that mirror their communities by bringing more women and others into a traditionally white, male-dominated profession. Plus, the department embraces the newest technologies – what he calls game changers for the fire service – like drones and AI.

He also gives us the lowdown on two of the most cherished firefighter symbols – the fire helmet and the firehouse pole.

Chief Waldo urges us to get to know our local fire department. "I think you’d be really surprised by what you learn. Come visit us," he says. And that’s what we do now.

Episode Notes:
-More about this episode -- including Chief Waldo's full bio -- and the IN THEIR WORDS podcast series can be found at: https://www.citizenarts.org/intheirwords
-More about the International Association of Fire Chiefs: www.iafc.org/
-Music credit: Frederic Chopin, Waltz in B minor. Music by Nesrality from Pixabay
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