Mike
Ward started riding fire trucks and ambo’s in
1971. He was a College Park VFD sackroom
member in 1974 and
flunked out of engineering school.
He
spent
the summer of 1975 as an ambulance technician for the Town of Ocean
City VFC.
He
was hired by Fairfax County Fire-Rescue as a fire cadet
in 1975.
He
rose
through the ranks at Fairfax, both fire and paramedic, finally stopping at
Captain II in 1995 with eight years on the street as a fire company officer.
He
has worked
in dispatch, suppression, EMS, training, prevention and headquarters.
He retired in 2000.
He
started
writing fire trade journal articles and making
presentations in 1984. He was an FDIC
speaker from 1992-1998. He was a
writer for the
“Company Officer Development” column for Fire-Rescue Magazine.
He
is currently the Fire
Science Program Head at Northern Virginia Community
College.