Take care of ourselves and family

Hello Fellow Firefighters,

As this fall arrives, we have completed another MSFDA conference. To all who attended, I hopeyou were able to enjoy time spent with family, friends, and fellow fire fighters while learning valuable information you can bring back to your departments and communities. And for those you of you who came—and those of you who were unable to attend—save the date for our next conference – September 17-19, 2026 in Breezy Point. We’re looking forward toseeing you all there.

It won’t be long before the ol’ dreaded winter will be arriving. The older I get, the less I enjoy it!We do need to prepare ourselves for it, though… First and foremost, we need to make sureour families and homes are secure and safe, especially as we can get called out often duringthe winter months. Many times we fire fighters find ourselves saying something like, “I need to make sure I check mine out when I get home!” Sometimes we can get too caught up with thingsgoing on around us that we forget about what we should take care of at home. I speak from experience on that.

As I have been saying in my articles, we need to remind ourselves to take care of ourselves and families first, then our “bigger FD families”, and then the communities we serve. In ourprofession, all are important as we work to keep everyone safe.

Again, thank you to those who were able to come to the fall conference at Breezy Point; morehighlights will be coming in the next MSFDA issue. I hope to see you in the spring at our nextMSFDA conference.

As Always, Stay Safe!

Dale Grochow, MSFDA President