Blog: City Blog

KFD Chaplain: ‘My Tools Are My Flashlight and Cell Phone’

Capt. Paul Trumpore probably goes out on more residential fire calls than anyone else at the Knoxville Fire Department – about 30 since last summer.

Trumpore, a 24-year KFD veteran, knows a thing or two about fighting fires. But his niche – his calling – is helping people in crisis.

KFD Capt. Paul Trumpore

"I love my job – it's a passion for me," says Trumpore, KFD’s Lead Chaplain since 2005. “I was promoted to Captain in 2008. But my best promotion was when I became Chaplain.”

Whenever there's a fire, Trumpore is the face of kindness – the guy who's finding emergency shelter for a family, or helping a parent retrieve a change of clothing for a young traumatized child.
"Whether you're a chaplain or a police officer or first responder, it's not always our job to make everything better," he says. "Some things, you can't make better. You can't undue the damage, or a death.

"But for all of us, it's our job to not make someone's day worse. When you get there, and they see you're there to serve them, then you know you're a welcome help to them – a comfort."

A bad day? That's when a resident is unable to get out of a burning house. When it's a child, it's devastating to the first responders.

"A baby's death - that's as bad as it gets," Trumpore says. "And we've responded to those."

But there are also remarkable days – many "significant saves," as firefighters refer to them.

Firefighters regularly climb ladders and enter burning buildings to pull unconscious residents to safety. Or they use rescue boats to free people trapped by rising floodwaters.

"To the public, this looks routine," Trumpore says. "They say, 'Oh, the Fire Department is here - they'll get him.' But rescues like these are much more difficult."

Capt. Trumpore delivered the Benediction at KFD's Feb. 25 Firefighter Recruit Class Graduation at Cox Auditorium on the UT campus.

Then there was the spate of recent evacuations from high-rise buildings.

It started with a Nov. 18 apartment fire at Summit Towers downtown, which forced the evacuation of residents in 35 apartments.

That turned out to be a precursor to two larger fire-related high-rise evacuations, due to elevator outages: Residents of 270 apartments at Northgate Terrace in North Knoxville had to be relocated on Nov. 27, and then 317 residents were evacuated from Summit Towers in January.

Trumpore credits a big team of people eager to help: First responders, but also the American Red Cross, Knoxville Area Transit, Animal Control, Young-Williams Animal Center, and - in the most recent situation - the staff and managers at Chilhowee Park, where the Jacob Building was converted into an emergency shelter.

Of course, the Fire Department responded to a number of high-profile massive fires this past winter - a Nov. 28 arson at Catholic Charities of East Tennessee in North Knoxville, a Dec. 31 arson at Planned Parenthood's clinic in East Knoxville, and a Jan. 30 fire at the vacant but soon-to-be-rejuvenated Standard Knitting Mill in East Knoxville.

Knoxville firefighters battle the Jan. 30, 2022 fire at Standard Knitting Mill.

Trumpore also doubles as KFD's Public Fire Education Officer.

Several springtimes ago, he remembers helping the Red Cross with fire safety training at Christenberry Elementary School. The group of children included kindergartners. It seemed pretty routine.

That next fall, there was a house fire. The parents tried to battle the fire, but it quickly got away from them. And they were scared - their three small boys were presumably trapped in a back bedroom, and the fire blocked the parents' path. They ran to the back of the house to break a window, fearing the worst.

To their relief, their first-grade son had led his brothers to safety, then calmly waited with them for his parents at the designated emergency meeting place.

The first-grader had been one of the kindergartners who participated in the Christenberry training.

"The parents hugged me and told me, 'You saved our kids' lives,'" Trumpore remembers. "That was a really good day."

Trumpore is thankful that he's able to serve as Chaplain - and that he's been given some common-sense autonomy, when necessary, that allows him to be more helpful to families in their darkest hours.

"The City gives me the latitude to help people," he says. "That's very much appreciated. Typically, we don't transport anyone in a City vehicle. But I'm allowed to, in certain circumstances. We're not going to leave someone on the doorstep of what used to be their home, with nowhere to go and no way to get there.

"I came off the truck in 2003. I don't fight fires anymore, and when I go to a fire, I don't have fire gear on. My tools are my flashlight and my cell phone."

Posted by evreeland On 31 March, 2022 at 11:00 PM