HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Huntsville Fireplace & Rescue’s personal prominent, Howard “Mac” McFarlen, has been selected from colleagues around the shape to obtain the best honor a hearth prominent can obtain.
McFarlen was once named Occupation Fireplace Leading of the Future via the Alabama Affiliation of Fireplace Chiefs (AAFC). Mac has over 45 years of fireside provider enjoy, lots of the ones years spent contributing to his crowd in multiple means.
The prominent is widely recognized for his constant demeanor and loyalty to preserving Huntsville and its citizens barricade, exemplifying “the best leadership in public safety,” town officers stated.
“Mac has helped our community through many disasters, from devastating tornadoes and floods to heartbreaking rescues and industrial accidents,” stated Mayor Tommy Struggle. “He has always championed and implemented the highest standards in training, health, fitness and certification for his employees. He also fought for a competitive salary for staff, as well as state-of-the-art facilities, technology and equipment.
The firefighting veteran will be officially honored at a fall conference in Gulf Shores, surrounded by a community of fire chiefs and senior officers from across Alabama.
The award recognizes outstanding leaders whose actions and leadership in their profession, home, community and country serve as an example and challenge to other fire chiefs in the Southeast.
“I am extremely grateful for this award and thank AAC for this honor,” he stated. “I am also grateful to the brave men and women of Huntsville Fire & Rescue whom I have the great privilege of leading each day. I look forward to continuing to serve with you and for the community at large.
McFarlen has researched — and implemented — new and better ways to serve his community since his first day fighting fires, the city said. In the early 1990s, McFarlen secured funding, developed, implemented, and managed a new dispatch division for 17 volunteer fire departments in Madison County.
Along with this, he revamped their radio dialing system (still in use today) and raised the bar by having the county’s fire dispatch become the first in the region certified by the National Academy of Emergency Medical Dispatchers .
Mac later also served as chairman of the Huntsville/Madison County E911 Operations Executive Committee.
“Rarely do you meet a person whose passion for service and public safety matches that of Chief McFarlen,” stated Mayor Struggle. “He labored crisp to journey excellence in firefighters and rescuers. There isn’t a unmarried population protection group or operation in Huntsville that has now not benefited somehow from his paintings.
McFarlen performed a pivotal function in reorganizing the Huntsville Fireplace & Rescue Hazmat Workforce into an absolutely purposeful, 24/7, special-assignment unit with qualified and specifically educated staff.
Since after, he has complicated the unit’s features to develop into a Particular Operations Section and tied the Alabama Mutual Backup Gadget (AMAS) and chaired the AMAS Coaching Committee which led the improvement and coaching of all AMAS groups around the shape.
The Leading has a name that makes him humble and unwavering in his determination to town, fast to provide credit score to the hearth and rescue groups that save lives and give protection to component in Huntsville.
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