Matthew Willingham, captain with Menlo Fire Department has been with the department for 12 years, but his contribution to the community extends far beyond Menlo. “I went to Forsyth for 2 1/2 weeks back in 2019 and received fire instructor 1, fire instructor 2, and live fire instructor so that I could teach the recruit class in Chattooga County if the opportunity ever arose, and so that I would be more qualified to teach weekly training for my department,” Captain Willingham said.
He said he was approached about teaching a volunteer firefighter class during the winter months, and he agreed and taught an 8 week class totaling 100 hours.
“The last class was an all day live burn training exercise. Then each candidate had to pass the state test. I had 13 recruits take the test and 12 passed it on the first try,” Willingham said.