Encouraging fire stations from around the state to gather and network, the city of Augusta hosted this year’s Georgia Fire Service Conference, on Aug. 22 – 25, in downtown’s Marriott at the Convention Center.
Highlighting the vital role firefighter personnel play in protecting local communities, a joint effort between the Georgia State Firefighters Association and the Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs, the conference also serves as an annual reminder of important issues within public safety departments, and how to promote solutions in various fire stations across the state.
While the GAFC began in the 1970s, the GSFA was founded in the ’50s and the two eventually partnered in the late ’90s to host a combined statewide conference where all levels and rankings of firefighters are invited to compete and make connections.
“It’s important that we understand the roles of firefighters and chief officers, and we try to provide training on both sides,” said President of the Georgia State Firefighters Association, Gary Clark. “We’ve been hosting this conference since 1952, and we’ve been here in Augusta 10 times.”
With 71 annual conferences, public relations representative for the Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs, Yalonde Tanner, said it was a new record of attendance with over 250 participants.
“We’re so glad that Augusta has open the doors and let us come in, because to get this size of a conference with not only fire chiefs, but also firefighters, officers and the other ranks, it takes a lot of work,” said David Eddins, president of the Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs.
Eddins said he was grateful to the Augusta Fire Department and Fire Chief Antonio Burden’s hard working staff, who played an enormous portion in arranging the conference.
In addition to preventing and managing cancer, ongoing training for state certifications and great leadership skills and expectations, the event heavily emphasized mental health awareness and treatment with several presentations focused around handling workplace stigma, and how to prioritize one’s own health in order to keep saving others.
Eddins shared his story of how he balanced personal and workplace difficulties, and learned how to admit when he needed assistance.
“Everybody struggles and a lot of people, because of our line of work, put us on a pedestal,” said Eddins. “We feel as though people are looking at us as their heroes, and we can’t show that we’re weak. We’re supposed to be there for others’ hardest times, so we just swallow down.”
According to Eddins, post-traumatic stress disorder has become an epidemic for all departments in public safety, as well as suicide, and both need to be addressed.
“It affects all public safety — fire department, police, EMS and even 911 dispatchers, so it’s time we started talking about it more openly. We need to let people know it’s okay to say, ‘I’m not okay,’” he said. “We have troubles at home just like everybody else does, but then to add on top of all that is the scenes we go to … sometimes those just clash, and we don’t know which one is going to be the tipping point.”
From his presentation, Eddins said he hopes attending supervisors and coworkers learn to speak up when they feel their fellow firefighter is struggling, and to proactively promote their individual mental health by talking with a therapist whenever necessary.
“Let’s go get help early … it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. “[Fire chiefs] have got to be the leaders of it, and they’ve got to say, ‘This is not going to be a problem here in our department.’ They have to be determined to change the culture.”
Clark said the beauty of the conference was how many different levels of firefighters are represented each year, and that efforts can be combined to petition and lobby the government for more programs and assistance.
“[The GSFA] has lobbied for stuff like cancer legislation to protect our firefighters,” he said. “Now we’re focused on some legislation that will protect or provide some assistance in the event of PTSD or suicide.”
Recounting the early days of firefighting when people would wear simple coats and rubber boots, Clark said the conference was also a chance to promote and boost community learning among peers, which allows employees to learn others’ techniques or shortcuts.
“In the fire service, we’re all about learning. Things change so much as our career advances,” he said. “Everybody can learn from other departments … and it builds camaraderie, because the fire service is a brotherhood.”
Describing the fire stations as a “second family,” Clark said the conference and its competitions also helped instill a sense of belonging in each participant, because oftentimes firefighters spend most of their time at work around colleagues rather than at home.
“We typically work 24 hours on and 48 hours off, so a third of our life we’re with our second family,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to sit down with your brothers and sisters and network.”
As teams of firemen and women raced to finish in various competitions on Thursday, Aug. 24, Burden and other fire chiefs cheered for their county fire personnel to bring home the trophy and earn “bragging rights of being the best.”
“Conferences like this extend past city limits and departmental boundaries,” said Burden. “The whole theme of this conference is ‘better together.’”
The Georgia Fire Service ended with an awards ceremony, where each association congratulated winning teams of firefighters on their excellent teamwork and presented special recognitions to instrumental fire personnel.
The GAFC’s distinctions awarded Chief Darnell Fullum, from DeKalb County, as Fire Chief of the Year, and Deputy Chief Barry Shane West, from Cherokee County, as Chief Fire Officer.
The GSFA awards included naming: Phillip Merck, from Gwinnett County, as the Firefighter of the Year; Robert Husted, from Macon Bibb County, as Rookie of the Year; Carrell Rembert Sr., from Macon Bibb County, as Educator of the Year; Joshua Brewer, from Macon Bibb County, as Company Officer of the Year; and Arthur Parker IV, from Macon Bibb County, as Instructor of the Year. The organization also presented the Life Saving Valor Award to Griffin Fire Rescue, and Roswell Fire Department’s James Laudermilk and Andrew Riley.
For more information about the conference and demonstrations from the GAFC and the GSFA, please visit: https://www.gsffa.org/annual-conference
