Putnam firefighters reflect on careers

When asked to describe their proudest moments, retired Putnam Township firefighters Denis Aseltine and Mark Coddington both told stories of saving lives. 

In 1983, Aseltine, who recently retired as deputy fire chief for the township, revived a man in a Howell courtroom with CPR.

"Whenever you can save a life, it's rewarding. That's what we are there for, to try and save lives. So when you do it, it's a happy moment and a time to remember what it's all about," Aseltine said, mentioning that he received an American Red Cross award for his bravery. 

Yet he said firefighters are not successful every time and have to cope with that.

"You have to intermingle it (saving lives) with the thought that you can't win every time ... and that's heart-wrenching, but it's part of the job and something you realize has to happen," he said. 

Aseltine will always remember a close call in Hell when he was a younger man. He said he was inside a home ablaze on Patterson Lake Road when it happened.

"It flashed over us as we bailed out the door. It was one of those moments you know you have to get out and feel you are way too far away from the door," he said.

"If it hadn't been for having a senior firefighter with me, I might not have recognized the danger rapidly approaching and the changing conditions," Aseltine said. 

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Coddington, who retired as assistant fire chief for the township, also received an American Red Cross award for saving a life. 

"I helped to pull a young man from a burning vehicle. It happened a little bit south of Pinckney. He lost control and hit a tree," Coddington said. 

"With my assistance, he got out with very minor injuries," he said. 

Coddington said being a firefighter is a mix of emotions. 

"You have happy moments. You have sad moments and emotional moments when you get a tear in your eye. It's an emotional ride. That is for sure," he said. 

The two men both said they hope to see more young people get involved in firefighting, especially for volunteer and on-call departments. 

"The number of people joining volunteer or paid-on-call departments is extremely low right now," Aseltine said. 

"People don't have the sense of community that people had 40 years ago. Now we have such a fluid or mobile community that the number of people willing to give up their time doing this are dwindling drastically," she said. 

"It's a demanding job and it takes demanding schooling," said Coddington, who worked as a school bus mechanic for over 30 years. 

"It seems like we don't have people knocking the door down to come and want to be on the department, and that is why I think we see more and more departments going full time in Livingston County, because they can't always get the personnel to do it the way we've been doing it," he said.

Coddington, who plans to continue working his day job as a sale person at A&L Parts Plus in Howell, "wouldn't trade it (firefighting) for anything," he said. 

Aseltine, who is preparing to sell his home and move to Arizona, where he will continuing working from home for Caliber Public Safety, a police report software company, said he loved every year of his time fighting fires and saving lives in Putnam Township. 

Contact Livingston Daily county and townships reporter Jennifer Eberbach at 517-548-7148 or at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com.