Fire Chief applauds Capt. Carestio

Moultrie News 9/19/24

A Mount Pleasant fire captain's energy poured into redesigning and optimizing pumper trucks for maximum efficiency was duly honored to kick off the Sept. 19 Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce Luncheon.

On hand at the Omar Shrine Temple to introduce and award Capt. Mike Carestio was Mount Pleasant Fire Department (MPFD) Chief Mike Mixon Jr., who credited his colleague for dedicating off-the-clock time to enhancing department rigs.

"He does so many things for our department. Obviously, he's on the truck responding [and] training, but what I want to recognize him for is the design and redesign of our apparatus," began Mixon.

The MPFD commanding officer noted how the captain traveled to a plant in Wisconsin on multiple occasions to ensure that the trucks were being properly assembled.

The idea behind the redesign, added Mixon, is to accelerate response times in a profession where "when seconds count, we count seconds."

In addition to lauding his fellow smoke eater, the fire chief thanked Mayor Will Haynie and Town Council for financially supporting efforts to revamp his service trucks.

"We have several trucks coming out, several trucks on order that are going to make Mount Pleasant even stronger," he promised.

Carestio was presented with a First Responder of the Month mantel piece sponsored by Pinnacle Financial Partners.