Chris Williams never dreamed of becoming a fireman, but the idea of being able to help people did appeal to him.
“I just knew the main objective of the fire department was to help people and that meant a lot to me,” said Williams, who has served with Bruce and Chickenbone Fire Departments for nearly 20 years. “I can say we’ve helped a lot of people over the years.”
Williams’ first inclination to join the fire department was in the mid 1990s when there was a bad car accident near his home east of Bruce.
“I went over there and stopped to talk to John Edward Brasher (Bruce Fire Chief at the time) to let him know if they ever needed any water out this area where a tank was they could access and a few ponds,” Williams said. “We talked for a while, and he suggested I turn in an application.”
A couple months later, Williams was at work at Weyerhaeuser when fireman Gary Shoemake’s pager went off.
“When he got back, I asked him about the fire department and he brought me an application and told me to come to drill that night,” Williams said. “I showed up and they put me in some turnouts right away and they had me crawling around upstairs.”
From his very first training exercise, Williams was hooked.
“I saw right away that I liked it and wanted to learn all I could,” he said. “I would go to every training anywhere close to us to try and get better.”
During his early years as a fireman at Bruce, Williams would often be the first to arrive at the fire station when paged because of his work at Weyerhaeuser.
“Weyerhaeuser has always been great about letting us go to respond to a fire call, and being right here in town I would be the first or second to get to the truck,” said Williams, who’s worked at Weyerhaeuser for 28 years.
That often translated to being among the first at the scene and most often entering the fire engulfed home.
Williams, 53, who lives near the Chickenbone Community, joined Chickenbone Fire Department when it was established and was the only certified fireman in the department initially. He would later be named chief, a position he held for years, until being named Calhoun County Fire Coordinator.
“I have to say I wasn’t a good chief because I couldn’t oversee everything like I should,” Williams said. “As one of the few trained firemen we had, I was usually inside the house, so I would turn it over to the Bruce Chief to run the scene while I worked inside.”
“Being a chief is a major job. You’re responsible for all your firemen’s safety and keeping up with all the paperwork. Trying to keep retention on your department and maintaining your equipment, there’s a lot that goes into it.”
Williams recalls his worst fire ever as one during his tenure as chief at Chickenbone. It was on a freezing Christmas Eve and not far from his house. A fire started behind a wood heater and caught the wall of the old home on fire.
“I was first to get there and I could see the fire. It didn’t look too bad and I hit it with water, but then I could see the ground, still covered with dew, light up, telling me there was fire in the attic.”
They soon after got that contained, but while Williams and two of his firefighters were inside “knocking out hot spots,” the roof caved in.
“It fell all around me and I was OK, but I couldn’t get a response from my other firemen,” I kept calling them but wasn’t getting anything.”
They all escaped uninjured, but it burned a scary memory into the relatively young fire chief.
“It bothered me for several weeks,” Williams said. “You have a lot of responsibility as a chief. It’s not an easy job. You care about your people more than anything. There’s nothing in any house worth anyone getting hurt over.”
Over the years Williams has responded to a lot of bad fires and a lot of bad wrecks.
“The worst ones are always those that involve small children,” he said. “It doubles the effect on a person.”
To deal with those difficult situations, firemen regularly meet and talk through things and counseling services are also available.
The biggest line of support, Williams said, for every fireman, is their family.
“You often have to leave when something is going on and you have to have that support from your family that understands what you’re doing,” Williams said. “My wife Judy has been very supportive and my kids as well.”
As fire coordinator for the county, Williams aims to provide more support for all firemen through a variety of means.
“I do a lot of paperwork and seek grants to help all our departments and work to improve all our ratings and help coordinate regular training events,” Williams said.
He tries to meet with all the chiefs and individual fire departments when he can to get feedback on their needs.
Equipment is typically the biggest need because it’s so expensive and routinely needs to be upgraded.
“I’d love to have more millage on for the fire departments to upgrade our equipment, but we do the best we can with what we have.”
While much of the equipment may need upgrading, Williams takes great pride in all of Calhoun County’s firefighters and the job they do.
“I’d put our volunteer firemen up against any county,” he said. “I see the sacrifices they make all the time. I’m proud to serve with them.”