36 days ago
50 years ago this week, the Warner Robins Fire Department began dousing flames and saving lives.
The first fire department formed with 10 men in 1959, and today they have 110 men and women on the force.
Two years out of high school, rookie fire fighter Joseph Bartow is learning the tools of the trade.
Bartow said, "I get to live every 10-year-old boys dream every third day when I come to work."
Working 24 hours on followed by 48 off, Bartow likes the schedule and the variety each day brings.
Bartow said, "There's nothing typical about the job."
That same freedom drew his boss, Chief Robert Singletary to the department in 1982. Singletary said laughing, "It wasn't the pay!"
He said it was the camaraderie, the brotherhood and what the dedicated team could accomplish together that kept Singletary serving long enough to become the city's third chief in 1998.
Singletary said, "We had guys do everything from deliver babies to bring people back from heart attacks using an AED on them. Any day you may be involved in saving somebody's life."
Singletary learned the ropes from Larry West. He was the chief from 1984 to 1998.
West said, "I thought it was going to be the easiest job in the world. It wasn't quite that easy after a while."
He says when he started, the equipment to protect fire fighters and the community was a stretch from what it is today. West said, "The radio's we had, we used to call them Andy Griffith radio's. Looked just like the Andy Griffith Show."
Technology took a step forward, but not one relic. The department still uses a similar, hand-written call log to the original one started in 1959 by the first chief, Ernest Wood.
Wood said, "We had four men on duty each day. We had no holidays, no sick leave, no vacation the first year."
Wood says that group built the department. They were ten men protecting a city of about 16,000.
Wood said, "We didn't inherit any problems. Any problems we had, we created."
During the next 20 years, Chief Wood's team earned recognition as one of the best fire departments in Georgia.
It's a status Singletary pushes his group to maintain today. He said, "When I leave in seven years, it will just continue to move forward."
The Warner Robins Fire Department now has six stations, including headquarters named the West-Wood fire station, after Chief West and Chief Wood.
The fire department will host the community at all six fire stations starting Tuesday, October 20th and running through Thursday October 22nd. People are invited to visit the stations for tours and refreshments from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. each evening.
On Saturday October 24th, the fire department will host a demonstration day in the Chick-Fil-A parking lot on Watson Boulevard. It begins at 9 a.m. and lasts until 1 p.m. Children and adults can learn about the fire departments capabilities and watch several demonstrations. There will also be hands-on activities.
Call 478-293-1020 for more information.
