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6A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, December 28,2022
Photos by Julia Hansen Dawson County News
Above left, Johnny Irvin is Dawson County Fire and Emergency Services' new Division Chief of Operations andTraining. Above right, Don Patterson
has been hired as DCFES' new division chief for emergency medical services.
‘A lot has changed with the way science has
gotten involved with the fire service and
the way we looked at fighting fires [before]
versus how we do now.’
Johnny Irvin
New division chief, Dawson County Fire and Emergency Services
FROM 1A
Leaders
become its Assistant Fire Chief
of Operations.
Several years ago, Irvin left
his fire service roles for a peri
od of time, but realizing his
calling, he returned to the field
upon being hired as a full-time
firefighter/EMT at the local
Station 7 on Dawson Forest
Road West.
When recertifying and taking
additional courses, Irvin said he
learned how the nature of first
responder work has changed
over the years, like with grants
available for fire services.
“A lot has changed with the
way science has gotten
involved with the fire service
and the way we looked at fight
ing fires [before] versus how
we do now,” Irvin added.
Upon his hiring to Station 7,
Irvin was quickly promoted to a
lieutenant position. Then from
there, he transferred to this
division chief job.
Irvin’s top goals as the opera
tions division chief are to
match Dawson County’s ongo
ing growth and development by
boosting DCFES’s growth and
to “continue to build the depart
ment to meet the needs of the
community.”
He said he’s gotten to a stage
where he just wants to pass on
his professional knowledge to
future generations.
“I feel like I can do that with
the staff we have and just help
this department grow with the
knowledge I have,” Irvin added.
Irvin and his wife, Julie, are
married with four children and
seven grandchildren. After los
ing their 20-year-old son and
college basketball athlete
Clayton Martin due to a drown
ing accident in 2014, they start
ed a foundation named in his
honor.
“We’ve utilized that [founda
tion] to assist families in need,
especially during the Christmas
holidays ... giving gifts to fami
lies that can’t purchase gifts.
We [also] give them dinners
and that kind of stuff.”
The Clayton Martin
Foundation has also awarded
scholarships to students gradu
ating from Banks County
Schools, where Clayton previ
ously attended.
Don Patterson
Like others before him, Don
Patterson was intrigued at the
EMS role because the divi
sion’s reputation already pre
ceded them.
“I’ve always known the cali
ber of Dawson EMS...with the
paramedics and the EMTs, so I
jumped at the chance to be a
part of that,” Patterson said.
He explained that he was
“blessed to find how the depart
ment was set up” in terms of its
capabilities, such as being able
to offer plasma to patients pre
hospital, which he called “mas
sively important for trauma
patients.”
“Dawson County is one of
the few ground services in the
state that carries plasma.
Typically, you’ll see it on a
helicopter,” Patterson said. “It
makes sense because there’s no
hospital inside the county and
we take people to Cumming or
Gainesville [for medical care].”
Patterson began as a fire
fighter in Murray County, a lit
tle over an hour away. He
graduated from the Dalton
Vocational School of Health
Occupations as a licensed
practical nurse in 1994 and
worked in ICU and ER units
doing traveling assignments in
the North Georgia mountains
region.
Patterson became certified as
a nationally-registered inter
mediate EMT in 2000 and five
years later, he attended para
medic school at Tri-County
Community College in
Cherokee County, North
Carolina.
Then in 2007, he was hired
as one of the first nine para
medics for the City of Milton,
located in northern Fulton
County. He became that agen
cy’s EMS coordinator in 2014.
Patterson has also worked as
an instructor for Georgia’s
Peace Officer and Standards
Training Council, also known
as P.O.S.T. and as a paramedic
instructor coordinator through
the state’s Department of
Public Health (DPH).
In 2020, he began working
part time with Fannin County
EMS. Patterson is married to
his wife, Debra, and they have
four children.
Patterson would like to see
greater local education efforts
around automated external
defibrillators or AEDs and
CPR. To that end, he intends to
work with DCFES’s communi
ty risk reduction personnel and
local media outlets.
“Early CPR and early defi
brillation save lives,” Patterson
said. “They most definitely
save lives.”
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