Mount Prospect Fire Department leader honored by VFW

Mount Prospect VFW Post 1337 recently honored Mount Prospect Fire Department Battalion Chief Tim Cassidy with the First Responder Americanism Certificate of Merit, but the veteran firefighter insisted that it's a shared honor.

"None of the work I'm doing gets done in a vacuum," said Cassidy, who credited the support of village leaders, his bosses at the fire department and fellow firefighters for the recognition.

"I am highly honored to accept this, especially based on the group that's recognizing me," said Cassidy during a presentation before the village board. "My father is not in the room or on earth, but I know he's with us tonight. He's a veteran of the Korean War and he would be especially proud to see this."

Fire Chief John Dolan called Cassidy, who heads up training for the department, the reason he and Deputy Chief Tom Wang sleep at night.

"When we notified Tim he was getting the award, in his typical humble self, he said, 'What did I do? I didn't run into a burning building,'" Dolan said. "I said there's not a big difference between the individual that does that and the individual that trains people to safely and effectively do that."