City of Porterville

January 2015 Employee of the Month

Eric Orong

Fire Department

Eric Orong is originally from Visalia, and graduated from Mt. Whitney High School in 1998.  He began his career in fire service in 1999 and worked for several fire organizations before joining the City of Porterville Fire Department on Sept. 17, 2007.  He currently holds the rank of firefighter and is also an acting engineer, critical incident stress de-briefer, and previously served as fire investigator.  Eric completed the College of the Sequoia’s Fire Academy in 2001, and has attained certification as a fire apparatus driver-operator and Fire Officer.  He is currently completing the training program for certified fire instructor.  Eric has been married to Stephanie for six years and they have two sons, Owen and Luke.  When not on duty, Eric works part-time for Porterville College as a professional expert and enjoys spending time with his family. 

On November 29, 2014, Eric was driving with his family to Visalia to look for a Christmas tree.  Approaching Lindsay, they noticed a large column of smoke and went to investigate.  They found a commercial building on fire in the downtown area of Lindsay with a single police officer operating the fire engine and hose.  With Stephanie’s permission, Eric went into firefighter mode, helping relocate the fire engine to prevent it catching on fire and then directing the high flow, master stream nozzle to the flames.  Only after the engine was secure and additional help arrived did Eric rejoin his family to continue on their way.

His actions helped prevent damage to a City of Lindsay fire engine and to prevent the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings.