A Pinetown Volunteer Fire Department captain was awarded Eastern Carolina Firefighters Association’s Fire Officer of the Year.

Trey Baynor, a captain with Pinetown, was selected for “his hard work and dedication to the community and department” during the January meeting in Martin County, according to the ECFA Facebook page.

It’s an assessment with which Pinetown Captain Doug Bissette agrees.

“The nomination was for his dedication to better our department and always going above and beyond to make sure our equipment was in tip-top shape,” Bissette said. “He puts the department and the community first. He has the community on his mind when he makes decisions. He’s a very community-minded person.”

Baynor, a 10-year veteran of the department, is known to donate items needed for the department from his own business, teaches at the fire academy and at other trainings throughout the county. This fall, he took on the additional work of organizing the department’s annual turkey-shoot fundraiser, adding a gun raffle to it. Only 250 tickets were sold over the course of the turkey shoot; at the last event, 10 tickets were drawn for 10 guns. The combined fundraisers were a huge success, bringing in $15,000 for the department that relies on its share of the fire district tax from the county for operations and fundraisers for additional equipment and maintenance.

The Eastern Carolina Firefighters Association covers 37 counties in eastern North Carolina. It, along with Piedmont North Carolina Firefighter’s Association and Western North Carolina Association of Firefighters make up the North Carolina State Firefighter’s Association.

As winner of the ECFA Officer of the Year, Baynor will represent the eastern third of the state in the state competition for officer of the year.