Firehouse camaraderie an ‘invaluable’ love
Courtesy of Bob Whiten Jr.
From left, Ian Whiten stands next to his grandfather, Bob Whiten, 83, and his father, Bob Whiten Jr., who all serve in the Charleroi Volunteer Fire Department.
Katie Anderson
Charleroi fire Chief Bob Whiten Jr., left, stands with his father, Bob Whiten, 83, who has served in the department more than 55 years.
Bob Whiten was 24 years old when he joined the Charleroi Fire Department. In the 59 years since, he’s responded to more than 8,000 calls. Now 83, he still responds to calls when he’s needed.
“If it’s going to be a bad fire, I put my gear on and go,” he said in an interview Monday.
Fire service is in Bob Whiten’s blood. His father, Gerald, was a firefighter in Oklahoma, Pa. His son is the fire chief in Charleroi, and his grandsons are also in fire service.
“The camaraderie is one of the best things,” Whiten said.
Whiten moved to Charleroi in the early 1960s to attend California State College, now California University of Pennsylvania, for industrial arts. He joined the department, but fire service was much different in the 1960s.
“Our turnout gear was rubber, and we had hip boots,” he said. “Now it’s very much improved from what it was then.”
He said in rubber gear, you could feel the heat much faster.
“And it was awful heavy, too,” he said. “But that’s all you had, so you had to use it. The concept was pretty much the same – you put the cold stuff on the hot stuff.”
After climbing the ranks, Whiten became the fire chief in the late 1980s, and served in that position five years before his son, Bob Whiten Jr., took over as chief in 1992.
“There’s a lot of responsibility,” Whiten said. “The biggest thing is keeping your men safe. When that whistle blows, you don’t know if you’re coming home.”
The most difficult calls were structure fires with children trapped inside, Whiten said.
In August 2008, he received a different type of call about his own child, 47-year-old Sean T. Whiten, who was a state fire instructor and a captain with the Roscoe Volunteer Fire Company. Sean was teaching a structural burn class in Smithton when he suffered a massive heart attack and died.
“They had paramedics there and LifeFlight to take him to Mon Valley Hospital, but he didn’t make it,” Whiten said.
His funeral brought close to 2,000 firefighters from across the state, Whiten Jr. said. Having his firefighter family around during that time was so important, he said.
“You make a lot of friends in this business, and you had guys from everywhere helping out,” Whiten Jr. said. “It’s invaluable.”
Sean Whiten’s son, Sean-Robert Whiten, 29, now works as a firefighter for Morgantown, W.Va., Whiten said. Whiten Jr.’s son, Ian Whiten, 25, is also a captain at Charleroi’s station, and Ian’s girlfriend, Rebekah Johnston, is also a volunteer firefighter.
The family collectively has served more than 150 years in volunteer fire service, including Sean’s 35 years prior to his death.
“I’m really proud,” Whiten said of his sons and grandsons.
Whiten Jr. said he remembers visiting the fire station with his father when he was young. His father’s career influenced his own.
“Just knowing that he was a member here and running calls, I wanted to do the same thing,” Whiten Jr. said. “I thought that would be a good way to help the community out, so I got involved. He’s 83 – I hope I make it that far.”
Not once in the nearly 60 years of fire service, did Whiten want to quit. To him, the best part of serving in a fire station is the “camaraderie with the guys.”
“They’re a family, a brotherhood,” he said. “When you’re down here it’s all fun and games, but when the fire call comes in, we get serious.”