On Tuesday, Osceola County Station 65 held a traditional ‘push back ceremony’ to celebrate a new fire engine.
The Push Back ceremony is a reflection and representation of firefighters fighting ever yday to build public safety and encouraging the community that Station 65 is dependable and ready to help when help is needed.
Firefighter Christopher Waltz has been a firefighter with Station 65 for 17 years, and said he’s participates in many of these ceremonies.
“The event is traditional. Anytime we push a fire truck back, there’s a lot of compensation with that,” he said. “An engine is not a small investment. It is a quality piece of apparatus that will help us in the future. It’s pretty awesome. A fire engine is not something to replace very often. It’s such a large gap in technology that will provide the best service. It’s going to allow us to perform better.”
Commissioner Brandon Arrington, whose district 3 includes Station 65, took part in this event to celebrate with Station 65.
“This is a great day for public safety. The county commission over a decade ago made a decision to make sure our fire department is adequately funded,” he said. “We’ve been making strives to add new fire stations, adding brand new engines, and provide all the gear necessary for our firefighters to provide safe response to our citizens.”
Public safety staff such as Andrew Sullivan, the Public Information Coordinator for Osceola County Fire Rescue/EMS, encourages these events as investment in public safety continues.
“This department is undergoing tremendous growth, as the Commissioner was saying, we’ve added over 50 firefighter positions. In the last month we’ve broken ground on two additional fire stations, of which we have 15 stations servicing Osceola County since the program’s inception in 1989, so this is amazing growth for us this year alone.”
Ceremonies like this remind our firefighters of the everyday changes made to give them more gear and resources to help our community, and encourages the Osceola community that it is in the right hands when it comes to public safety.
