As he finds himself in the midst of another year as Greencastle Fire Chief, Rob Frank cannot help but look back on what transpired in 2025.
“We had a good year. It was our busiest year on record with over 1900 calls. We accomplished a lot. We brought in Pro Team Wellbess to help support mental health for firefighters. Another big thing for us, is we are working toward having a work performance evaluation to have a physical fitness standard for our firefighters. Our union donated over $20,000 to the community and cancer patients. It was a great year and we look forward to continuing that in 2026,” Frank told The Putnam Coubty Post.
As has been the case since he took over as Chief, there was also a lot of training that took place for the firefighters.
“At one point, we had five probationary firefighters, which are first year firefighters. While they come to our department with training from other departments, it’s still a big thing for us to train them on how we do things at Greencastle Fire,” Frank continued.
GFD did three live burn trainings, and sent firefighters to state classes.
“It’s one of the things that I feel is very important,” Frank said of the training.
The training has also included how to deal with lithium batteries on electric vehicles, as well as discussions and training for solar farms, should one come.
According to Frank, the issue with lithium batteries is they can go into thermal runaway, making them tough to extinguish.
“It can take thousands of gallons of water to put one of those fires out. The smoke is also extremely toxic and being in it can be a high risk hazard for firefighters. There’s cancer causing agents in it. It’s another challenge we are facing and a big risk,” Frank said.
As for solar farms and data centers, Frank said he doesn’t have an opinion one way or the other, but he knows his department has to be prepared should they come.
“The big push has been to put a big farm in Cloverdale. My biggest concern is making sure we are prepared to help Cloverdale, if needed as they are a mutual partner,” Frank said.
With January winding down, Frank said he believes 2026 will be “business as usual.”
“We will continue to focus on training and our work performance evaluation. That is a cool thing because for the first time in the history of our fire department, we will have physical fitness standards. We will have standards to be a firefighter and a project I am pretty proud of. We are always looking to improve and get better. We want to make sure that when our firefighters are called to serve, they do so at a level our community deserves,” Frank said.
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