[Dog Welder]

Just got a call that no fireman ever wants to hear. My friend, my brother, and my coworker Chuck Baird died tonight in a motorcycle accident a few blocks from his house in the same city he served. Our own guys were called to try and save his life. They didn't even know that it was him until a neighbor yelled out "Its Chuck, ITs Chuck." They said that there was so much head trauma that they didn't recognize him. They couldn't intubate him or start an IV line. If it were anyone else he would have been pronounced dead on scene. But our guys did what they could. To make matters worse one of the neighbors ran to his house and got his wife who had to be corned by one of our Captains. Never in our Department's history have we ever lost a brother. I don't even know what to feel right now. But he will always be remembered as the guy who always bounced back from an injury and the guy who truly lived life to the fullest. If you believe in anything say a prayer for one of the good guys.

F*CK the Mutts . Protect the Brotherhood. Everyone comes home.

 

[MTBrder69]

damn thats so sad man. sorry to hear it. my thought are with you, his friends, and family.

 

[lovebunny]

thats a damn shame. my condolences to you and everyone at the station and his family

 

[Graphics]

Wow...sorry to hear of your loss. Try and take care of yourself.

 

[mantispf2000]

Sorry for your loss, and to Chuck's family. I know through this site, Alaina is probably welcoming Chuck upstairs, and asking him all about being a firefighter, because that's what she wanted to be. Now Chuck gets to teach her in the best "school yard" around.....

 

[llkoolkeg]

J.H.C....another motorcycle fatality.

Prayers to his family & friends and high hopes that one for whom he made a difference will snatch up the falling flag and carry on his legacy of service to the community.

 

[sanjuro]

sorry, man.

 

[seismic]

So sorry to hear this.

 

[/\/\att]

Very sad when some one that close to you dies, one of our past fire chiefs died recently but, he was chief befor i joined. Best wishes to the family and friends.

 

[JohnE]

Sorry to hear about the loss. Its never easy to lose someone, and to lose someone who selflessly puts his life on line for others is doubly sad.
RIP Chuck, thanks for your service, fire dog...

 

[Dog Welder]

From the Inside, His Mourning Comrades Remember Chuck Baird PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ari L. Noonan
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Image
Chuck Baird

Rocked by the sudden killing of their comrade Chuck Baird in a motorcycle crash on Sunday evening, members of the Culver City Fire Dept. reflected this afternoon on the striking uniqueness of their fire family and how prominently Mr. Baird fit into it. For the solemnity of the occasion, the unflawed quietude surrounding Fire Station # 1, Downtown, seemed appropriate. The perhaps under-appreciated culture of fire departments everywhere is that the firefighters — unlike other professions — are together all day and all night, working round-the-clock schedules, consecutive days at a time. When the 44-year-old Mr. Baird died shortly afterward from injuries suffered when his motorcycle crashed, the loss slammed separately and crushingly into each then member of the fire family. “Everybody has been talking about Chuck, obviously,” said firefighter/paramedic Jorge Kurowski, an 18-year veteran. “Chuck, without a doubt, was an all-in type of person. He jumped in with both feet, regardless of the activity. If somebody was organizing an event, Chuck spared no expense in going out to get everything that was needed and then made it happen. I don’t care if we were going fishing, the guys were going motorcycle riding (a passion of his) or planning a game of golf. Even when he made a commitment to speak Spanish, he went all-in. He was always all-in, all the time. You could count on him. You didn’t have to call him to see if he had reserved a spot for us.”

What Distinguishes Firefighters

Capt. Bill Heins, at 25 years one of the senior veteran firefighters, explained how their professional lives differ from nearly everyone else’s. In Culver City, “we work ten 24-hour shifts a month, sometimes more, a lot of times more.” he said. “The thing that is unique for us, in our profession, is that we live together, 24 hours at a time. It’s not just like showing up, going to work and going home. We listen to each other’s problems. We share each other’s joy. We share each other’s pain. It’s truly a brotherhood. I know it sounds kind of…” Mr. Kurowski chimed in. “We know each other’s sleeping habits, their eating habits,” he said. “We know how they prepare themselves. We know how their work ethic evolves. You know them intimately because we are in such small quarters all the time. We are together for 24 hours, sometimes for four days or longer when we are on a brush fire. It is, without a doubt, a family evolution that takes place here. You become members of the same family.” What is the key to a group of professional adults necessarily getting along with each other when all of them have emerged from disparate backgrounds? “It truly is like any family,” Mr. Heins said. “We have good times, bad times. There are times when we don’t get along with each other. But, what ends up happening is, because we all have a common goal — to provide emergency services to the community, to make things better in people’s lives when they are at their worst — it’s that common goal that switches any negativity to positive.”

They Call It Pride

Firefighters also are driven to preserve the proud, rich legacy of the fire service, Mr. Kurowski said. “Let me tell you about that history. The very first day I came here, from the person in charge of making sure I knew where my pants were to the chief, they all said, ‘You have an obligation to get along. That is part of your job. Your job is to find common ground because the work we do is too important.’ That was from Day One. That history is something we do here. When you start, you are so happy to be here, to get this career that you think is so important, that you feel an obligation to provide part of the legacy. You don’t want to be the guy who drops the ball, who makes some kind of separation in the department, cliques or whatever. We know the system works. It has been around for a long time. It did not happen by accident. Because of that, we have an obligation. We get along because it is important.” Do firefighters ever go out on an emergency call when some of them are not speaking to each other? “When that happens,” Mr. Kurowski said, “professionalism steps up. It’s not often. When the bell rings, it usually is the problem-solver. You realize then why you are here. We are here because we made the commitment to serve. We are not going to be measured by whether we were right or wrong in an argument. We will be measured by the way we provide our service.”

The Role of the Fallen Comrade

Where did Mr. Baird fit into the mosaic in the often taken-for-granted Fire Dept.? “We are a small department,” replied Mr. Heins. “Our formal leaders, through the ranks, have the authority to lead. But we also have informal leaders who lead. Our culture and our department cultivate that. We encourage people to be informal leaders. Chuck was an informal leader. Chuck taught CPR classes, both to the public and to our department. He taught EMT (emergency medical training). He was the first one to get up when something needed doing, and usually he was the last one working. If you were to put a face to the definition of professional firefighter, that was Chuck. He always came in upbeat and positive. He was looking for the bright side of everything. Jorge was saying the other day, you don’t get a nickname like Chuckles without being a jovial, gregarious person. Of all of our guys, Chuck had a sense of humor.”

From Another Direction

Mr. Kurowski asked to have a certain weightlifting photo of the muscular, strapping, splendidly conditioned Mr. Baird flashed onto the computer screen. “He was a mountain of a man, the epitome of fitness,” Mr. Kurowski marveled. “He did this because of his obligation (as a firefighter). When I say he jumped in with both feet, when he said he was going to be a firefighter, he understood that meant physically, mentally, being completely prepared to provide the service. I used to tease him. I told him that when he worked out, nobody else could because he used up all the weights. He made you good, better. He set the bar on those kinds of things. And you would say, ‘That is where I need to be.’ That was because of the type of person he was. He also was this kind of person. If he did not completely agree with a formal leadership decision, he understood that the only way that decision had any chance was to get behind it 100 percent. He never had a sour thing to say. He would say, ‘If that’s what we’re doing, let’s give it 100 percent.’ Chuck was definitely a leader, even though he didn’t have rank.”

Postscript

As of this afternoon, funeral services still were pending for Mr. Baird. A firefighter/paramedic, he was a 12-year veteran of the department. He is survived by his wife Pam and their three sons, ranging in age from 24 to 14, Alex, Tom and Andrew.

 

[Dog Welder]

Toast one for CHuckles. I've never been to a Fire Service funeral before....but I've been told they are truly an awesome site. Great send off for a great man.