The Firehouse Yak: Daniel Byrne, Laura Kondor, Ben Shearer – Where is Community Risk Reduction Today

Peter Matthews is the conference director and editor-in-chief of Firehouse. He has worked at Firehouse since 1999, serving in various roles on both Firehouse Magazine and Firehouse.com staffs. He completed an internship with the Rochester, NY, Fire Department and served with fire departments in Rush, NY, and Laurel, MD, and was a lieutenant with the Glenwood Fire Company in Glenwood, NY. Matthews served as photographer for the St. Paul, MN, Fire Department.        

DANIEL BYRNE is a community support officer for the Burton Fire District, Beaufort County, SC, and a retired assistant fire chief of training for the Georgia Air National Guard 165^th Fire Department. A third-generation firefighter, he holds an associate degree and a bachelor’s degree in fire science as well as a master’s degree in public administration and disaster management. Byrne is an alumnus of the National Fire Academy. He received state and local awards for public relations and educational programs as well as community partnerships and served as a conference presenter and keynote speaker. 

Laura Kondor is the fire safety coordinator/captain for North Charleston, SC, Fire Department. Her position entails managing all educational programs for businesses, non-profits, schools, and residential groups. Additionally, she manages the department's digital media platforms and supports the public information officer. Kondor received a bachelor’s degree in interior design with a minor in studio art and owned her own business as licensed South Carolina general contractor for several years. She has been in emergency services for 15 years, starting as a volunteer firefighter for a rural fire department. She started with North Charleston Fire Department in 2017 as the full-time fire and life safety educator. Kondor is certified as a Fire and Life Safety Educator II, Youth Firesetting Prevention and Intervention Manager, Car Passenger Seat Technician/Instructor, Fire Instructor II, Fire Officer II and Advanced Public Information Officer. 

Ben Shearer has worked for the Pasco, WA, Fire Department since 1989 and has consistently advocated for a planned education campaign for the community. He has spent the last seven years moving the department toward a Community Risk Reduction approach and is always looking for new programs to build a better quality of life for the residents of Pasco. Shearer is the chair of the Washington Public Educators and the NFPA-Washington State Educational Representative, where he gets to share his passion for helping other departments and agencies build their risk reduction efforts.