Chief Dewey Whetsell is a thirty-four year veteran with the forty-member Cordova (Alaska) Volunteer Fire Department providing structural, marine fire protection, underwater rescue/recovery, and Search and Rescue operations. He is a recipient of Alaska's highest fire service award. Chief Whetsell is past-president of the Alaska Fire Chiefs association and certified Level IV instructor. He authored the 160-hour Senior Fire Officer's Course covering NFPA-1021, among numerous other courses. At the invitation of the Alaska Departmetn of Emergency Services, Chief Whetsell represented the City of Cordova during the 1989 Exxon-Valdex oil spill and eventually was responsible for impementation of the Incident Command System in spill response plans by major oil companies shipping oil in Alaska waters.

A collection of poems and essays by Dewey G. Whetsell, a retired fire chief after a 30-year career in the fire service and an avid reader of poetry and philosophy. He moved to Alaska in 1965 and is now settled in Anchorage, Alaska, He teaches fire service related topics around the state, plays with his jazz band, and of course, writes.