The Turlock Fire Department held their employee recognition ceremony recently and selected two veteran firemen to honor with their annual awards.
The fire department recognized Engineer Shaun Walker as Firefighter of the Year, and Captain Kain Packwood as the Customer Service Award Winner for 2012.
Walker started his career in the fire service as a reserve firefighter with the Livermore/Pleasanton Fire Department in August 2005 and joined the Turlock Fire Department in November 2006 as a firefighter and was promoted to engineer in January 2009.
Walker’s peers at the fire department nominated him based on his active role in training and other department functions. Walker has been awarded a Fire Chief’s Commendation for outstanding customer service and the Meritorious Service Award from Medic Alert.
"Shaun has great dedication to our citizens, and his passion to provide excellent service is well known,” Fire Chief Tim Lohman said.
Capt. Packwood was honored with the Customer Service Award because, “he looks for every opportunity to deliver great customer service to our citizens, and holds himself and his crew to a high standard of excellence for customer service,” Lohman said.
Packwood started his career in public safety as an emergency medical technician with American Medical Response and a volunteer firefighter with Turlock Rural Fire Department in 1996. He was promoted to paramedic in 1998, and he was hired by TFD in 2002. He was promoted to engineer in 2003, and to captain in 2008. Packwood has a master’s degree and Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Long Beach. Packwood is a member of the Technical Rescue Team, Critical Incident Stress Management Team, and the Arson Investigation Team. He is also the department's Designated Infection Control Officer.
In addition to these two awards 10 Fire Chief Commendation Awards were given to employees who were instrumental in an important project or went above and beyond the call of duty. Those recognized by the fire chief were Captain Larry Chalupnik, Captain Frank Saldivar, Captain Mike Harcksen Captain Kain Packwood, Captain Casey Cockrell, Engineer Peter Becchetti, Engineer Shaun Walker, Engineer Kevin Tidwell, Engineer Matt Mason, and Firefighter Justin Rossiter.
