Ryan Cusack, Assistant Fire Chief
City of Crown Point Fire Department
Crown Point, IN
Ryan Cusack was nominated by Kyle Schmidt of True Wealth Advising.
Mr. Cusack serves as the Assistant Fire Chief at Crown Point Fire Rescue and has been a department member since becoming a volunteer firefighter in 2005. He has worked his way up the ranks from Lieutenant in 2017, Captain in 2020, to Assistant Chief in 2022. Mr. Cusack was also the Canine Search Team Manager for INTF-1 for several years. He is a member of the NWI First Responder Peer Support Group, which is dedicated to mental health support for local first responders. His experiences during deployment have made him more passionate about mental health, knowing firsthand how much responders can be affected by what they see and do.
Mr. Cusack and his K9, Jake, train twice a month in Indianapolis, working with the rest of the INTF-1 canine team to stay current on their skills. They are constantly training to be better, spending time in Crown Point working on the local rubble pile or doing simple at-home trainings. When they aren’t training, Mr. Cusack and Jake meet with the local students who visit the fire department, educating them on disaster safety and how vital Jake’s work is.
Mr. Cusack can be deployed at any time, rain or shine, whether it’s a holiday or his birthday (which he spent in Miami for the Surfside collapse). He selflessly sacrifices his time to help families become whole again and find closure after a disaster.
Mr. Cusack and Jake have been with Indiana Task Force 1 since 2013, and their home team is Indiana District 1 Technical Rescue, hosted by Crown Point Fire Rescue.
Previous Deployments
