One of the first duties of brand new Rockford fire chief Michele Pankow is to welcome in the newest members of a department she’s been serving in since 1992.
It’s fire recruitment graduation day with seven men and women ready to begin a career serving and protecting the Rockford community. There were also two new members each from the freeport and sterling fire departments celebrating their graduation from the academy. One of the new recruits, James Smith, has experienced firsthand the life-saving role the Rockford Fire Department plays in our community.
“My senior year of high school, my dad had a massive heart attack while he and my mom went on a bike ride. And my mom did CPR for something like 5 to 7 minutes and the fire department showed up and they actually saved his life. So they got him to the E-R. Triple bypass within an hour and it was all because of the Rockford Fire Department,” Smith says.