Blog | firstcallfirst

Jan 24, 2020
3 min

Meet The Team: John Hayes

Don't let the half smile fool you, John Hayes, our Lead Air Technician whose been with the company for a total of four years, is known for his friendly outgoing nature. Usually he's sporting a big grin as he bounds from one job to another. We really enjoyed catching up with him and picking his brain about the work he does and the people he works with. Thoughts about the company " I love my job! I love being an air tech, it's challenging. I know when a group goes out and use e

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Jan 16, 2020
2 min

Meet The Team: Hayden Fenley

The young man pictured above is about to hit his two year mark with the company. He is one of our rescue technicians, and we'd like you to meet Mr. Hayden Fenley. WHY RESCUE? "With the activities I enjoy, I thought this line of work would help me in everyday life. I think it's good to know basic life saving skills" WHO ARE YOUR MENTORS? "The company is basically one big family. It doesn't matter your background. Someone is always wanting to help you. There hasn't been a team

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

May 3, 2019
2 min

Meet The Team: Vernon Davis

With a city fire department, and military background, it was a happy occurrence that Robert Yarbrough and Brady Devereaux happened to be purchasing at Bass Pro the day Vernon Davis was on shift. And so his story with First in Rescue, Safety and Training begins close to five years ago this November. Vernon, is one of the few individuals that looks for you to complete training, and any other prerequisite needed for any particular job site. He likes to have his ducks in a row an

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Apr 4, 2019
3 min

Meet The Team: Robert Yarbrough

You would be hard pressed to find a person more passionate about rope rescue than Robert Yarbrough. He has been with the company pretty much since day one and has always been all in! Many of our employee's have attended one of his new hire training sessions. The feelings are often expressed "if you can survive Robert's training, you can make it!" Because of the passion Robert has for rope rescue, he demands accuracy and adherence to the technique that F.I.R.S.T. employs for t

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Mar 15, 2019
2 min

Meet The Team: JoAna Benavidez

From the day JoAna joined our team in October of 2016, she has always been a positive, big-hearted individual. Caring about the people you work with is a big part of what F.I.R.S.T. is. So when a person joins the team that already has those qualities, its like a duck to water, as they say. Before learning rescue she had worked in the industry, JoAna said she had particularly been interested in the rescue side of things, because it involved helping people. JoAna has been a gre

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Dec 28, 2018
4 min

Meet The Team: Brad Hawthorne

"My dad is the hardest working man I know. He has always been an amazing provider for our family. He is a man of integrity, has solid morals, deep faith, and can light up any room with his banter and jokes. You can tell that he loves his job here at FIRST as well as his job with HFD because there is a level of excellence in his performance that is a direct result of being passionate about what he does. He is a great leader and boss because he leads by example. I am extremely

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Dec 14, 2018
2 min

Meet The Team: Lisa Groover

She's as cool as the last name implies, Lisa Groover our payroll specialist, has been with the company for about a year now. While she has been with F.I.R.S.T. for a relatively short time, she's had experience in the payroll field for about 12 years now. We've been happy to have her expertise here. Lisa is part brainiac, currently she has gone back to school to get her accounting degree. She says "I love numbers, solving the puzzle and the satisfaction of balancing. I enjoy t

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Nov 15, 2018
4 min

Meet The Team: Roy Creager

It is fitting that during the month of F.I.R.S.T. LLC's 10 Year anniversary, we feature one of our Owner's and President Roy Creager. 2018 has been a year of reflection. A lot of change has taken place, even outside the normal scope of a growing company. But with the help of fearless leaders like Roy Creager, we worked through growing pains, grief, and even celebrated joys. In 2018 F.I.R.S.T. established a monthly meeting with staff, here employee's are able to hear Roy's tho

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Sep 28, 2018
2 min

Meet The Team: Frank Ratka

"I spent 3 to 4 summer's at the the firehouse with my dad and uncle as a kid. When I was 11 I was apart of my first rescue simulation or training. I repelled down the 5th floor in front of a class that was afraid of heights. I've done rescue work for at least 20 years now. I've worked with men like Brady Devereaux, Logan Reininger, Greg Doggett and Robert Yarbrough. I spent several years in the military performing rescue's, with whatever was available. But you don't have to r

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Aug 31, 2018
3 min

Meet The Team: Dennis Aldrich

Mr. Aldrich comes from a class of people who still takes pride in a hard days work. He would come in at the end of a shift, find an empty desk, meticulously review his paperwork, share a bit of small talk and then leave with a, "Well, I guess I'm gunna bug out to the dug out." He always has neat little sayings like that. He is a kind individual who takes pride in completing every aspect of his job with precision. Dennis Aldrich has been been with the company since July of 201

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Aug 3, 2018
2 min

Meet The Team: Kalynn and Jacob Hanna

F.I.R.S.T. is proud to be a "family owned and operated company", but our owner's Roy and Celeste Creager makeup only one of the family duo's. We would like to introduce you to Kalynn and Jacob Hanna. Kalynn has been with us since early 2016 as our Sales Representative in the Port Arthur area. Her husband Jacob has recently joined supporting our training department as an instructor. Everyone who has had the privilege of working with either Kalynn or Jacob, has always had, noth

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Jul 20, 2018
2 min

Meet The Team: Josue "Josh" Luna

Towards the end of 2016 F.I.R.S.T. found itself in need of assistance around the shop. Alex Romero our Shop Coordinator was in need of help, he had just lost his right hand man, and keeping things running around the shop is no easy task. It was around this time that we hit the jackpot with Josue Luna or Josh. As usual, for most new hires, Josh went through our rescue training program and did well. Causing our shop coordinator to have to share Josh with rescue teams. Josh pred

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Jun 15, 2018
2 min

Meet The Team: Darian Lariviere

After working 10 to 12 hours in the blazing Houston heat, most people would understandably, want to head home unwind and recoup for the next day. But Darian Lariviere is not most people. Her idea of a "stress reliever" is spending time with her roller derby team and getting knocked around, she says "its how I want to spend my time, it's a stress reliever..." You can tell by the way she talks about her team, she views them as extended family, she loves what she does! From her

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Jun 8, 2018
2 min

Meet The Team: Sean Orsack

The level of talent that goes through this company is not limited to our Rescue, Safety or even Training divisions, F.I.R.S.T. is privileged to have a top notched IT support in, Sean Orsack. All of us are amazed at what Sean is able to do. If something goes wrong in our IT world the first thing you'll hear us echo is "Call Sean". He provided a brief summary of how the wealth of his knowledge was acquired. He said "it was a passion, I got my first IT job at 18. Worked until 20

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

May 10, 2018
2 min

Meet the Team: James Felder

August 2017 while Hurricane Harvey stationed itself over Texas and dumped an unprecedented amount of water over Houston and surrounding area's, James Felder found himself in Mississippi working a rescue job. For many Houstonians who were not affected by flood and rain waters, they experience a feeling of being trapped, unable to provide assistance. While a good number were able to get out and use their personal trucks, boats and anything else of use to help in rescue work, th

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Apr 27, 2018
3 min

Meet the Team: Derica Toussaint

If you were to visit 1013 Center street in Deer Park Texas on most days, you'd probably find a lot of hustle and bustle going on. Teams are coming in from the night shift, teams are going out early for the day shift, employee's are catching up on site specifics, annual training, or putting in hours at the shop. In an environment like that its important to have key people on hand to direct the traffic flow. Mrs Derica Toussaint is one of those people. She has been with us for

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Apr 13, 2018
2 min

Meet the Team: Jacob Gomez

We started our "Meet the team" series several months ago, and from the very beginning, today's featured employee, has supported the concept of commending other's for their good work ethics and qualities. He's usually one of the first to comment on his own positive observations about his team-mates. We expressed appreciation to him for that and he said "I'm all for anything that brings a positive environment. " Jacob Gomez has been with F.I.R.S.T. for around 5 years now. He w

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Team F.I.R.S.T.

Mar 30, 2018
2 min

Meet The Team: Shanna Camp

Receiving phone calls is a part of most peoples work day. There are, however, some phone calls that make you brace yourself before answering. When Shanna Camp calls, its what we all do, brace ourselves for whats about to come! Whether its, whipping together a rescue team on the spot, creating a proposal in a timely fashion, and by timely, she means within the next 5 minutes, or getting together employee certifications. There's no telling what Shanna might task you with, she k

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