Etowah County Association of Volunteer Fire Depts

06/23/2026

06/22/2026

Firefighters Oath

06/18/2026

Association meeting tonight has been cancelled due to the threat of severe weather and flooding
Everyone please be safe

06/18/2026

Monthly Association meeting Thursday June 18 at 7:00 pm at the 911 office. Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

06/16/2026

If you have workmen comp insurance ,it is time to renew. If you have not paid the WC dues please do so now . Please turn in a current roster also.
Thank you for your promptness in this matter.
You may email or message me your roster
immediately if you may want to.

06/16/2026

Bolivar Arellano's camera caught them mid-stride.
Thirteen FDNY firefighters, moving toward the South Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001. The photograph holds them there — still moving, still together, the tower still standing behind them. Ten minutes after this frame was taken, it collapsed.
Among them, six men from Ladder 7:
Ritchie Muldowney. Lt. Vernon Richards. Chuck Mendez. Vinny Princiotta. George Cain. Robert Foti.
They are walking in the photograph the way firefighters walk into every building — purposefully, without the hesitation that would be reasonable and human and entirely forgivable. That is what the training produces. That is what the job demands. That is what they gave.
The image has endured because it is not abstract. It does not ask you to imagine sacrifice. It shows you the moment before it, rendered in light and shadow by a photographer who happened to be standing in the right place to bear witness to what none of them yet knew was coming.
Thirteen men, mid-stride, moving toward the sound of it.
They are remembered at the 9/11 Memorial, where their names are held alongside the 343 others the department lost that day. The photograph remains. So does the weight of what it captured.
We will never forget.