COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Captain Grant Burns, a 33-year veteran of the Colerain Township Fire Department, received the 2020 Ohio Fire Officer of the Year award Tuesday afternoon.
Burns said he was truly humbled by the award and thanked his fellow firefighters, fire department leadership and his family.
"The amount of time that I was doing training and away from the house, it was a lot of hours, a lot of hours being away, and my wife, she's my biggest cheerleader," Burns said.
The EMS Firefighter and Fire Safety Inspector Training Subcommittee and the Ohio Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Medical Services recognizes firefighters each year “to honor fire service members for exemplary service to their communities.”
Burns is currently the company commander at fire station 103 in Colerain Township, where he serves as a training coordinator and captain of special operations.
In his years with the department, his work in research, development and administrative reviews has resulted in improvements to the standard operations guidelines that firefighters follow. He has also helped update Colerain Township Fire Department's rescue tactics and modernize its extrication equipment. This equipment is used by emergency personnel to rescue crash victims or help with rescues in other small spaces.
Burns' work on these projects is shared with Hamilton County’s Mid-West Fire Chief’s group and has helped not only his own department, but also the more than seven other Cincinnati-area fire departments Colerain Township shares with an aid agreement.
