Firefighter Captain Andy Weller to Retire after 33 Years of Service Share

• email
• facebook
• linkedin
• twitter
• reddit
• google+
• pinterest

Mar­i­on Fire Depart­ment Cap­tain Andy Weller will retire after 33 years of serv­ing the com­mu­ni­ty. Pri­or to being hired full-time with MFD, Weller served four years as a Vol­un­teer Fire­fight­er for Cen­ter Town­ship. Dur­ing his first ten years with MFD, Weller took every train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty he could to gain knowl­edge beyond manda­to­ry train­ing. He took cours­es at the Nation­al Fire Acad­e­my on three occa­sions. Weller excelled in haz­ardous mate­ri­als train­ing. In 1992, he was select­ed as the Haz­mat Coor­di­na­tor for Mar­i­on and Grant Coun­ty when the City of Mar­i­on became the first depart­ment to run its own Haz­mat Tech­ni­cian course in Indi­ana. Weller said, ​“Right now, in deal­ing with the coro­n­avirus, we have the gear and the knowl­edge, and we’re pro­tect­ed.” He not­ed Haz­mat as one of the high­lights of his career. ​“I’ve watched it grow from day one. I’ve been able to teach many fire­fight­ers this impor­tant aspect of the job.”

For about four years, before Lin­coln Ele­men­tary School closed, Weller was part of an edu­ca­tion­al fire pre­ven­tion pro­gram for kinder­garten­ers. ​“Because of fire pre­ven­tion edu­ca­tion and strict code enforce­ment, we have less fires, and actu­al­ly have more med­ical runs.” Weller has been an Emer­gency Med­ical Tech­ni­cian (EMT) since 1993. He is also a cer­ti­fied instruc­tor of life-sav­ing skills includ­ing car­diopul­monary resus­ci­ta­tion (CPR). ​“My EMT train­ing has paid off because for the past ten years, I also work part-time with the para­medics for Mar­i­on Gen­er­al Hospital.”

Weller was an inte­gral part of sev­er­al res­cues from house fires through­out his career. ​“Those saves were tru­ly team efforts. This is cer­tain­ly a team job. I have been for­tu­nate to work with a great group of guys. I have relied on them, and they have relied on me, and we’ve worked real­ly well together.”

Weller also reflect­ed on his oppor­tu­ni­ty in 2003 to go with a small group of fel­low fire­fight­ers to New York City for the memo­r­i­al ser­vice from ⁹⁄₁₁. ​“Through com­mu­ni­ty dona­tions, I was one of five Mar­i­on Fire­fight­ers who were hon­ored to attend the memo­r­i­al held at Madi­son Square Gar­den, and got to sit with Fire­fight­ers from Res­cue 1 Sta­tion in Manhattan.

Fire Chief Paul David stat­ed that Capt. Weller has been a valu­able asset to the city as well as the coun­ty as a whole. ​“Capt. Weller has always done an excel­lent job as a leader as well as a Haz­mat coor­di­na­tor. He always took his role seri­ous­ly. Capt. Weller always has a pos­i­tive out­look and has moti­vat­ed those that he’s worked with. It’s hard to replace a guy who has such vast knowl­edge of sev­er­al fields that we work in. From Med­ical calls, Haz­mat calls, CPR instruc­tion, to fire­fight­ing, Capt. Weller excelled in all of those fields, and we were for­tu­nate to have him. He will cer­tain­ly be missed on our depart­ment. We wish him luck in his future endeavors.”

Deputy Chief Justin Planck echoed Chief David’s remarks. ​“I want to thank Capt. Weller for his years of ser­vice and ded­i­ca­tion to the Mar­i­on Fire Depart­ment and for always being some­one we could count on.”

In retire­ment, Weller plans to con­tin­ue work­ing part-time with MGH, while spend­ing more time with his fam­i­ly. Weller is mar­ried with one son, one daugh­ter, and six grandchildren.

Capt. Weller’s last day with MFD is April 5^th, 2020.