Ottawa Fire Department holds first-ever pinning ceremony to mark promotions

It was a special moment made even more so by having family involved.

For the first time ever, the Ottawa Fire Department on Monday morning honored two of its own with a pinning ceremony, marking the promotions of Adam Wampler to captain and Cameron Lair to lieutenant.

“This is a significant day for the Ottawa Fire Department,” Fire Chief Brian Bressner said. “Having this ceremony today is not to show them off, just to show the pride we have for our guys and what they’re accomplishing throughout their careers to better themselves and to better the community. There’s no better way to do that than to have their fellow firefighters, members of the City Council and of the public here to recognize these guys for making this city a better, safer place.”

The event, attended by the entire Ottawa Fire Department staff, several city officials and the families of the men being honored, took on a more emotional aspect when the officers’ daughters got to pin the new rank insignia on their fathers.

“Persistence pays off, I guess. Now I’m looking forward to the opportunities ahead.”

—  Captain Adam Wampler

For Wampler, the honor went to his daughter, Kendall, and for Lair, his daughter, Alayna.

“Getting the families involved is special, too,” Bressner said. “That’s often the unseen aspect of their work. These firefighters are around each other for 24-48 hours and their families are the backbone.

“It shows the wives and the kids who don’t get to see them for those long hours or days at a time what their husbands, their dads are accomplishing and that they’re a part of it, a part of the family atmosphere we have here.”

Wampler, who has served as a firefighter, paramedic and lieutenant with the department for the last 20 years, will continue on his current shift, Shift 2, now as captain. He will now be in charge of the entire shift and have two lieutenants – one of them Lair – working under him.

“This has been a long time coming, 10 years as a firefighter and 10 as a lieutenant before finally making it to captain,” Wampler said with a grin. “Since I ventured in, I’ve wanted to get there, but I’m happy it took me a while. It gave me the time to gain experience at those levels before moving up.

“Persistence pays off, I guess. Now I’m looking forward to the opportunities ahead.”

Lair, a firefighter and paramedic with the Ottawa Fire Department for the last 15 years, will be moving to Shift 2 to serve as a lieutenant, a role he’d been filling for a while.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long, long time, and now that it’s here, it’s kind of surreal,” Lair said. “It may seem like it took a while, but not really because this is the greatest job I’ve ever had. It’s gone by quicker than I ever imagined.

“I work with a great bunch of guys here. The new guys are even better than anticipated. I can’t wait to share my knowledge on to them, so that when it comes my time to leave, they’ll be able to protect this city the way we’ve been able to do for so many years before.”

Bressner added that the two honorees have served as a shining example to the younger firefighters working under them.

“What we want to strive for here,” he said, “is to promote the guys who want the promotion, to move up, who test out well and who have proven themselves. It shows the younger firefighters what it can be like for them.”