Today marks a milestone in the career of a City of Deltona Fire Fighter. As Lieutenant Roger Eckert walked into Fire Station 62 for the start of his shift it marked his 30th anniversary as a Deltona Fire Fighter. Lt. Eckert began his career as a reserve firefighter when the City was still just a fire district in 1983 after serving five years in the United States Navy assigned to the Disaster Response Team and on March 12, 1984 he became a fulltime career fire fighter. Back in those days, fire fighters worked eight hour shifts generally from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm before the department even considered their fire fighters working 24 hour shifts. As Firefighter Eckert climbed the career ladder he moved from being a driver engineer and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1992. Over his thirty year career he has seen many changes not only within the fire department but also within the City of Deltona specifically when the City incorporated in 1995. He has seen the department grow from three fire stations to the five stations that now operate within the City limits. He has served on the Deltona Fire Department Honor Guard and up until last year had been a member of the Special Operations Team since its inception in 2003. Lt. Eckert has also raised his own family in those thirty years. His wife and children also have been an integral part of the fire department family as well. Two of his five children took part in the Deltona Fire Department Explorer program that he was instrumental in starting in the year 2002. The Explorers take part in fire training as well as a variety of community events. Throughout the past 12 years he has donated countless hours working with the Explorers passing his knowledge onto them as well as taking them on camping trips, to various Fire-matic competitions throughout the State of Florida. One of the milestones of his Explorers were when they became a recognized Honor Guard Team taking first place in their first competition. Not only does Lt. Eckert continue to serve the citizens of Deltona, he also served as a volunteer fire fighter with the Lake Helen Fire Department for twenty years where he resides to this day with his wife Deborah. On his off time he likes to raise chickens for their eggs and work in his garden where he sells his harvest at the local farmers market in Lake Helen. The fire fighters of the City of Deltona and the Deltona Professional Fire Fighters Local 2913 would like to take this time to congratulate Lt. Roger Eckert for his thirty years of dedicated selfless service, leadership and most importantly passing his years of knowledge to all those rookie fire fighters that have walked through the station door since he began. Thank you Lieutenant!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 17:28:31 +0000