{"id":1314620,"date":"2019-09-14T18:03:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T00:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=987583"},"modified":"2019-09-16T07:50:03","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:50:03","slug":"sunday-profile-a-call-to-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/sunday-profile-a-call-to-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Profile: A call to service"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.3745704467354\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-987583-6\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/09\/SunProfileCallahan-gpi-091519-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/09\/SunProfileCallahan-gpi-091519-1024x609.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"SunProfileCallahan-gpi-091519 | Colorado River Fire Rescue Fire Chief Randy Callahan enjoys a laugh with member of his adminstration staff, clockwise from bottom left, PJ Tillman, Leif Sacett, Orrin Moon Maria Pina during an afternoon meeting at Station 41 in Rifle.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"13\">\n<p><strong>Colorado River Fire Rescue Fire Chief Randy Callahan enjoys a laugh with member of his adminstration staff, clockwise from bottom left, PJ Tillman, Leif Sacett, Orrin Moon Maria Pina during an afternoon meeting at Station 41 in Rifle.<\/strong><br \/>SunProfileCallahan-gpi-091519<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/09\/SunProfileCallahan-gpi-091519-1024x609.jpg\" alt=\"Colorado River Fire Rescue Fire Chief Randy Callahan enjoys a laugh with member of his adminstration staff, clockwise from bottom left, PJ Tillman, Leif Sacett, Orrin Moon Maria Pina during an afternoon meeting at Station 41 in Rifle.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/sunday-profile-a-call-to-service\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/sunday-profile-a-call-to-service\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For Randy Callahan a career in the fire service was something he found early in life.<\/p>\n<p>Pointing to a framed picture on his office wall of a 1956 Ford\/Howe fire engine, Callahan explained that he, his brother and father all worked on the truck when he first began fighting fires in the suburbs of Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy dad got me into this profession. He started as a volunteer, as did my brother and I, and we both turned it into a career,\u201d Callahan said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat picture is a reminder of the beginnings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Callahan said those beginnings were inspired in part by both the honor and spontaneity found in the firefighting profession.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou never know when you go out that door if you\u2019re going to be back in five minutes, five hours, or 10 hours,\u201d Callahan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou work until the job\u2019s done, and then you come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After moving from Michigan to Fort Collins in 1994, Callahan went to work for the Poudre Fire Authority.<\/p>\n<p>Callahan spent 23 years in Fort Collins before retiring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought I was done with the fire service, and that was not the case,\u201d said Callahan who has served 43 years.<\/p>\n<p>With years of service and knowledge Callahan couldn\u2019t stay away from the fire service for long.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe will forget more than I will ever know. He very much loves to pass along the knowledge he has and it brings a positive attitude to the workplace,\u201d CRFR Operations Division Chief Leif Sackett said.<\/p>\n<p>After he retired, he worked on the fire certification board and then with Boulder County Rural Fire before coming to Rifle at the beginning of 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Callahan is now serving as Fire Chief for Colorado River Fire Rescue serving New Castle, Silt and Rifle. He initially came to the role temporarily in January after former Chief Rob Jones stepped down at the end of 2018. He said he\u2019s extended his stay at the request of the board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve made an 18 month commitment to stay, to finish up a project we started, we have a lot of good projects going on,\u201d Callahan said.<\/p>\n<p>Callahan oversees 55 career firefighters and around 30 volunteer firefighters covering an 850 square-mile area from Rifle to New Castle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChief Callahan has been a godsend to us, he has taught us how to work well with one another. He has changed our thinking and views. He is so big on training and always giving us a lesson out of what we do and giving us a purpose,\u201d Administrative Director PJ Tillman said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has really made us a strong team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Colorado River Fire Rescue has four staffed stations including Station 41 and 43 in Rifle, Station 61 in Silt and Station 64 in New Castle. Colorado Fire also has Interagency Station 42 they share with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management fire agencies. A second station in New Castle, Station 63, is an unstaffed location.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in a time business, our challenge when we are spread out like we are is once that bell rings, the window of opportunity closes on us,\u201d Callahan said of the area CRFR covers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why we have to get there, and is why we have the people and stations to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ITS ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE<\/p>\n<p>Callahan said firefighting is about the people, from the firefighters to the citizens.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIts all about the folks here in the fire station and in the community, CRFR and its community has a heart and soul, and it\u2019s incredible,\u201d Callahan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Callahan said a great example of the character of the people of Colorado River Fire Rescue occurred recently when the firefighters organized an event to honor the fallen firefighters on Sept. 11.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He said as many firefighting companies that could came over to Station 41 and made their way up and down the stairs of the training tower in memory of the firefighters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s only a three-story training tower, but they all took turns climbing those stairs and ringing that bell 343 times,\u201d Callahan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the heart and soul of people, and I love that,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen he says he is all about the people of CRFR, he truly means that. He has a passion for the fire service, a passion for people and he has a passion for the citizens of our district,\u201d Sackett said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIts fun to work with him because you see that in how interacts with people and the department.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SPARE TIME<\/p>\n<p>When he is not working between fire stations or working to educate the community Callahan enjoys time with his wife Patsy and their two dogs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m blessed, my wife is a giant in my eyes, and she is the nicest, kindest person I\u2019ve ever met,\u201d Callahan said.<\/p>\n<p>Callahan said he is a self-professed winter nut, and he and his wife love the outdoors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love snowshoeing and skiing,\u201d Callahan said.<\/p>\n<p>Callahan mostly skis the backcountry because of the solitude of it, and he can take his dogs.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:kmills@postindependent.com\">kmills@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/sunday-profile-a-call-to-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado River Fire Rescue Fire Chief Randy Callahan enjoys a laugh with member of his adminstration staff, clockwise from bottom left, PJ Tillman, Leif Sacett, Orrin Moon Maria Pina during an afternoon meeting at Station 41 in Rifle.SunProfileCallahan-gpi-091519 Show CaptionsHide Captions For Randy Callahan a career in the fire service was something he found early [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 11:53:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1314649,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314620\/revisions\/1314649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}