{"id":799,"date":"2011-01-07T11:59:17","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T18:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=799"},"modified":"2011-01-07T11:59:17","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T18:59:17","slug":"hoffman-retires-as-city-fire-captain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/01\/07\/hoffman-retires-as-city-fire-captain\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoffman retires as city fire captain"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

The Van Wert Fire Department\u2019s senior captain, Frank Hoffman, said farewell to his colleagues during a retirement open house held Thursday in Van Wert City Council Chambers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Van Wert Fire Chief Jim Steele (left) presents retiring Fire Captain Frank Hoffman with a gold watch honoring his 27 years of service to the fire department. Photos by Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seeing his senior captain leaving after 27 years of service left Fire Chief Jim Steele with mixed emotions, noting that Hoffman was his \u201cgo to\u201d guy, especially when he had to go out of town.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrank was always the guy I could trust that things would get done, I didn\u2019t have to worry if I was going to be out of town,\u201d Chief Steele said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hate to see a person with as much time and service and experience leave,\u201d Chief Steele said, adding, \u201cat the same time, I hope you have a great time (in retirement).\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoffman joined the fire department in 1984 under then Chief Paul Baer and was promoted to lieutenant by then-Chief Ron Rank in 1992. He was promoted to captain in 1997 and has been the senior captain since 2007.<\/p>\n

Chief Steele said that, although the city fire department is well equipped, it is the people who are the most important asset he has.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have outstanding equipment and we have a great facility, but the bottom line \u2013 what makes the difference each and every day \u2013 is the people that are here and Frank is surely one of those special people,\u201d the fire chief added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Captain Frank Hoffman reminisces about his service with the city fire department during a retirement open house held Thursday in Council Chambers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hoffman thanked his fellow firefighters, noting that the quality of people who have served with and under him have made his job easy. He also said he had good teachers and singled out retired fire captain Dave Freeman, who he said was an excellent fire instructor, and Chief Steele, who taught his first EMT class.<\/p>\n

The retiring captain also noted that he had good memories of his time in the department \u2013 except possibly the time fell through a weakened roof \u2013 and also complimented his replacement, newly promoted Captain John Lahmon, saying he knew Lahmon would do a good job.<\/p>\n

Chief Steele also presented Hoffman with his \u201clid\u201d \u2013 his fire helmet \u2013 and with a gold watch honoring him for his years of service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor The Van Wert Fire Department\u2019s senior captain, Frank Hoffman, said farewell to his colleagues during a retirement open house held Thursday in Van Wert City Council Chambers. Seeing his senior captain leaving after 27 years of service left Fire Chief Jim Steele with mixed emotions, noting that Hoffman was his \u201cgo to\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 00:24:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}