January 18, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Fire Department recognized and honored a few of its own during the annual awards program held Saturday evening in a virtual setting this year due to COVID-19.
Two of the prestigious awards went to Lieutenant Dustin Johnson, who for the 3rd year captured the Liberty State Bank Officer of the Year honor while Lieutenant Blake Cantrell was selected to receive the Allen’s Allstars “Git R Done” Award.
(WJLE will have another forthcoming story on other fire department award winners)
In presenting the Officer Award, Chief Donny Green paid tribute to Johnson for his leadership skills and community service.
“As one of our lieutenants and Fire Prevention/Safety Officer, Dusty Johnson continues to grow in his leadership skills and does a tremendous job leading, planning, coordinating, and scheduling free smoke alarm installations and providing fire prevention/safety events for our community. Lt. Johnson is among the top when it comes to incident responses and training attendance. He unselfishly donates his construction skills and equipment to make improvements to our department. Lastly, he sacrifices his time for community service. As a member of the DeKalb Emergency Services Association, he played a big role in helping plan, prepare, and deliver over 500 free meals last Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Dusty also serves our community in his role as Captain of the Smithville/DeKalb County Rescue Squad and he is also an active Emergency Medical Responder with DeKalb County Emergency Medical Services,” said Chief Green.
Captain Jay Cantrell then praised Lieutenant Blake Cantrell for his “Git-R-Done” commitment to the department.
“Lt. Cantrell continuously shares his technology skills and goes well beyond his required duties as Lieutenant and Communications Officer. He is always willing to take on new projects, stays on task, and is always prompt. He prioritizes training and call response while still doing all these extra things that makes our department better prepared to serve and respond. With his excellent information technology skills, Blake has gone above and beyond by maintaining our security equipment, text messaging system, radios, pagers, and computers, and installing video cameras in our county-wide fleet. As for community service, it would be hard to find anyone more involved in our community. Blake is a former President of the DeKalb Emergency Services Association (DESA) and has led many community service projects including the Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve meal preparation and delivery projects where over 500 meals were delivered on each occasion. Blake demonstrates the model of a “Git-R-Done” firefighter,” said Captain Cantrell.
Wilson Bank & Trust was the headlining sponsor of the program.