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Hillsborough County Firefighter Returns From Wildfires in West
He's Hot On The Trail Of Adventure
Published: Aug 18, 2003
BRANDON - Hillsborough Fire Rescue Capt. Kevin Ogden is a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
He fights fires locally, and he's part of a statewide team that travels out West to battle wildfires several times a year.
``It's very dangerous, and sometimes it's scary,'' said Ogden, a volunteer firefighter with Station 27 on Bloomingdale Avenue. ``But it's also a lot of fun and it's an adrenaline rush. You have to be a different sort of person to do this.''
Ogden, 24, who has worked for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue since 1997, spent 16-hour days in July fighting flames that licked the side of a mountain and sent up clouds of smoke at a 1,100-acre wildfire in Montrose, Colo.
He was part of a team of 20 full- time and volunteer firefighters from Florida.
Florida's Department of Forestry has hundreds of trained firefighters from across the state who volunteer to help fight wildfires in other states, said Department of Forestry spokeswoman Chris Kintner.
Ogden spent about two weeks last year fighting another Colorado wildfire, and earlier this year he was in east Texas helping crews search for debris from the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
Jill King Greenwood
Published: Aug 18, 2003
BRANDON - Hillsborough Fire Rescue Capt. Kevin Ogden is a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
He fights fires locally, and he's part of a statewide team that travels out West to battle wildfires several times a year.
``It's very dangerous, and sometimes it's scary,'' said Ogden, a volunteer firefighter with Station 27 on Bloomingdale Avenue. ``But it's also a lot of fun and it's an adrenaline rush. You have to be a different sort of person to do this.''
Ogden, 24, who has worked for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue since 1997, spent 16-hour days in July fighting flames that licked the side of a mountain and sent up clouds of smoke at a 1,100-acre wildfire in Montrose, Colo.
He was part of a team of 20 full- time and volunteer firefighters from Florida.
Florida's Department of Forestry has hundreds of trained firefighters from across the state who volunteer to help fight wildfires in other states, said Department of Forestry spokeswoman Chris Kintner.
Ogden spent about two weeks last year fighting another Colorado wildfire, and earlier this year he was in east Texas helping crews search for debris from the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
Jill King Greenwood