Pender County welcomes Fire Marshal Mark Haraway

BURGAW – Pender County Emergency Management recently announced the hiring of Mark Haraway as Fire Marshal.

A native of Danville, Virginia, Haraway is no stranger to Southeastern North Carolina where he has served as a firefighter, training officer, deputy fire marshal, special operations coordinator, fire chief, deputy fire chief, and now fire marshal.

He started his public service career in May 1979 as a teenager.

“My entire family was involved in public safety.  My grandfather was a police officer for 32 years, my dad was in the volunteer rescue squad and a career firefighter for 37 years, my uncle was a career firefighter, so it was kind of like the family business,” said Haraway. “I started in the volunteer rescue squad at age 16, was a Red Cross CPR and First Aid instructor at 16, joined the volunteer fire department at 18, and have been in the fire service ever since.”

Haraway’s experience has impacted several state-appointed boards, including Hazardous Materials Regulatory Control, North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) Rescue Development program, NCDOI Universal Commercial Code (UCC) Training Group, North Carolina Emergency Management Traffic Incident Management Systems (TIMS) Development Committee, and the North Carolina Emergency Management All-Hazard Incident Management Team (AHIMT) Development Committee.

“I retired in 2014 and moved to Tennessee, where I continued to work as Deputy Fire Marshal for Sevier and Knox Counties, then as the Deputy Fire Chief for the 134th Aire Refueling Wing for the Air National Guard,” said Haraway.

The strong draw of family pulled him away from retirement and Tennessee, he said.

“My wife and I decided we wanted to move back ‘home’ to North Carolina to be closer to our son and grandkids. Pender County is a place we are familiar with and wanted to come back to,” Haraway stated.

“Mark has influenced many young firefighters and EMTs through his training,” said Tommy Batson, Pender County Emergency Director. “Mark is a published author of a teaching text, Large Scale Incident Management. We are very pleased to have him on staff in Pender County.”

Haraway said in his “free time” he enjoys teaching fire science and Incident Command System (ICS) classes.

“I especially enjoy spending time with my grandkids and working in my woodshop,” Haraway added.