Dunne Makes Captain in Dobbs Ferry Fire Department

4/9/2021

An omnipresent force on campus, Director of Facilities Craig Dunne is responsible for everything from managing heating and plumbing repairs to overseeing renovations in the School’s numerous buildings.

And now, Dunne, who is a firefighter with Dobbs Ferry’s all-volunteer Fire Department, has taken on another role: captain of Tower Ladder 23.

“It’s a lot more responsibility,” Dunne said. “Now I’m responsible for an entire piece of apparatus and all the men on it. I’m running the operation. It’s exciting.”

In order to qualify for captain, Dunne completed extensive training, including courses on exterior and interior firefighting, roof work, fighting fires from the tower, and more. The newly minted captain described the training as “intense,” and noted that “We get the same training as any fire department in the country.” He also shared that there is a need for more volunteer firefighters in Dobbs Ferry.

Becoming a volunteer firefighter was a goal borne out of Dunne’s experiences as a volunteer cleaning up at the World Trade Center site after 9/11 and “watching the firefighters do what they did down there.” Now that he has fulfilled his ambition, Dunne couldn’t be happier: “I love it,” he shared.

It won’t surprise those who have met him to learn that Dunne is characteristically modest about his new role and the Masters community’s enthusiastic response: “I’m just a volunteer firefighter who put in the training and was able to get the position.”