Lieutenant Rick Kolomay

RICK KOLOMAY is a lieutenant currently assigned to a heavy rescue squad with the Schaumburg (Ill.) Fire Department. He is in his twenty-second year in the fire service, starting his ninth year as a lieutenant. Rick has also served on engine companies and truck companies. Rick was preceded by an uncle who started with the Chicago Fire Department in 1935, another uncle thereafter, and his father who retired in 1992 after serving with the Chicago Fire Department for 39 years. In August of 1984, Rick introduced the first “hands-on” line officers training program in the nation to the Illinois State Fire Academy. Since then, the program has been introduced at the FDIC and has been conducted throughout various cities nationally. Rick has instructed for various community colleges, Illinois Fire Service Institute, Illinois Fire Chief’s Association, Chicago Fire Academy, and the Fire Department Instructors Conference, Firehouse Expo, the NFPA Training Committee. He has also instructed for the State of Massachusetts, Milwaukee, Dayton, San Jose, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Phoenix, Tucson, and others. To back his instruction, he has written numerous articles for Fire Engineering and Firehouse magazines.