Rank of Fire Captain Returns in Du Quoin

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Du Quoin City Council Monday night approved the appointment of career firefighters John VanVoorhis and David Durkota as captains within the department.

The appointments bring back a longstanding tradition of leadership roles within the fire service. The department now benefits from the experience of fire service Chief Bob Shaw, assistant Chief Rick Loyd, captains VanVoorhis and Durkota and senior firefighter Adam Hill and the firefighting roster. The latter three were all within six points of each other in recent merit board testing.

Chief Shaw that while the department benefits from seven fulltime firefighters, the department is actually staffed by 25-30 volunteer paid-on-call volunteers.

Shaw said the coming year will include advanced training for every member of the department.

Chief Shaw thanked police and fire commissioner Josh Downs for his support of the department. "Commissioner Downs has done a really good job and all of us are taking the department to the next step. We feel that bringing back the rank of captain provides a much better leadership program." Du Quoin is a partner in a regional mutual fire call program and collectively these men are some of most well-trained and best equipped in the midwest. The purchase of a new first response fire truck will complement a rigorous training and accreditation program during the coming year.