ALTON - Alton Fire Department Battalion Chief Derrick Richardson expressed some thoughts in regard to firefighters who are also fathers and grandparents today for Father's Day. These were Derrick's comments:
"Most of us in the fire service are parents and grandparents. We choose the fire service because we want to help others, and provide a good life for our family while doing the job we love. We risk our lives to make someone else’s day better. As I like to say, “We risk our lives to make a person’s day better than the moment they needed us”.
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Derrick continued: "The community appreciates us, and our families appreciate us even more as husbands, fathers, and grandfathers who risk our lives to help others. We treat people, we rescue people, we save people, and we save savable property, and then go home to be with our families. I don’t like to think about how it would affect our families if we didn’t come home one day, but I know our families support us and are proud of us for accepting our call to serve as firefighters.
"Father’s Day is a day to reflect on the joy of having kids and grandkids, and be able to be there for them throughout their lives."
Derrick closed and said: "I want to wish my son, Jermaine Fraction, father to my grandsons Noah, Jordan, and Kairo, a Happy Father’s Day."
