Captain Drake Award

Captain Drake Award Criteria

A.F.A. awards firefighters whose achievement in the fire service provides an example of exemplary service and performance.

  • Nominee must be a current member of A.F.A
  • Nomination must come from their peers
  • Nominee must have given outstanding service to the Fire Service

The awards committee shall reviewing each nominee. This committee will vote for the recipient of the Captain Drake Award by majority vote. If there is a tie that can not be broken the Association President will cast the tie breaking vote.

Submission Information

Online Form Submission

Printable form    Captain Drake Form

A Captain Drake nomination form must be completed and mailed to:    

AFA
P.O. Box 524
Trussville, AL 35173

And must be CLEARLY MARKED ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE “CAPTAIN DRAKE”

All nomination forms must be post marked by May 1st of each year to be considered. The nominating person shall receive confirmation acknowledgement.

The award will be presented at the Annual Conference each year. The submitting person and the recipient  of the Captain Drake Award will be notified prior to the convention in an effort for them to make arrangements to attend the conference.

Who is Captain Drake by his loving daughter!

February 4, 1909, my father, John Franklin Drake, entered this world and would later become what he dreamed of becoming…a proud firefighter who would be known as Captain Drake.  He knew his stuff and learned it the hard way—by “doing”.  To him, that was the only way.  The “books were wrong”.  Unless you had actually endured the heat of battle with that unpredictable enemy known as fire, you could not effectively deal with the situation. 

He often called it the most dangerous job in the world and many times after he finally retired , I heard him say, “I loved my job”.  I’m sure others would have begged to differ with his opinion of job danger, until September 11, 2001.  The day of the most violent attack on American soil when 343 fire-fighters lost their lives trying to save others .  If he had still been in active service at that time, and been in New York City, I can assure you, he would have been leading the charge up those stairs of the World Trade Center.   That’s just the way he was.

His career started during the depression and my Mom said that he would “hang out” at the fire department because of his fascination with that profession until he finally got the opportunity to become one of them.   He worked his way up the ranks but was always directly involved with fighting fire.  He was the “general” who not only gave orders, but lead others into danger for the good of the misfortunate.   I remember him telling of a child he saved from a burning house; and directing the efforts to contain a chemical spill that could have easily exploded. 

He didn’t brag about those episodes.  He just talked about them as casually as one might talk about buying groceries.   I never really truly comprehended the danger.  He just loved what he did.

And he loved it so much, that when he retired from the City of Birmingham, after 34 years of service, he took a position with the Alabama Fire College, training firefighters all over the state-paid and volunteer for an additional 12 years.  He received  commendations, plaques and letters of appreciation from various municipalities and his services were requested months in advance.   “Captain  Drake” was the man to ask about what you needed, where to find it and how to do it, when it came to firefighting. 

When he finally retired from that venture, he continued his love of firefighting, by selling fire trucks for Harless Fire Equipment Company all over the state.  He loved to take clients to Appleton, Wisconsin to actually see the Pierce factory where trucks were built.  Those he advised, trusted him, because they knew “he knew his stuff”!

In 1999, the Alabama Firefighters Association  established the Captain Drake Award to be given annually for exemplary performance as a firefighter.   He received the first of these awards.

Captain Drake died July 14, 2000 at the age of 91.  He outlived many of his constituents and I think would have been happiest if he could have continued to fight fires until that day.  Of course, age puts final limitations on all of us.

Here is a portion of an article I found online at:

http://www.vestaviahills.net/CityDepartments/FireandRescue/History/tabid/106/Default.aspx

     Vestavia Hills Fire Department  

 
In the beginningthe Vestavia Hills Area, south of Birmingham, officially became a municipality on November 8, 1950 to be known as Vestavia Hills, Alabama. The first order of business was to establish basic city services, which included police and fire. The City’s first Mayor, Verner L. Adams and the council appointed R.M. Maddox to oversee the Vestavia Hills 12 member Volunteer Fire Department.Our first fire truck:
In January 1928 a motorized fire truck, made by the American LaFrance Company of Elmira New York, was delivered to Birmingham Alabama to serve at Fire Station 24. Soon after its arrival in the Magic City politics intervened and the destination of the truck was changed to Station 19. It served as a frontline truck at Birmingham’s newest fire station for some 20 years. On the drivers side of the truck was the signature of all American LaFrance fire engines, a red lined locomotive-style brass bell topped with an American eagle.The Town agreed to purchase the American LaFrance truck from City of Birmingham for $750.00 to start its Volunteer Fire Department on February 21, 1951. Captain J. F. Drake, from the Birmingham Fire Department, trained the Town’s original twelve volunteer members on the American LaFrance truck. As tradition called for, Captain Drake rang the bell once as the truck left the station and again when it returned, which signifies a safe return.

 

He is still remembered.