Women Firefighters of the Lowcountry

As part of the public outreach programs of our Team, we display several fire department vehicles that we have restored. At present, we have a 1961 Mack pumper, a 1962 Ford Fire Chief’s car, a customized firefighter tribute motorcycle, a Charleston 9 Tribute drag racing car, and a customized golf cart. We have just acquired a 1979 Chevrolet Pierce squad truck that we are about to begin restoring. We have shown these vehicles at the South Carolina State Firefighters’ Association’s Annual Fire Rescue Conference in Myrtle Beach, various parades, public gatherings, fund raising events, car shows, school visits, and any other event where we can raise the public’s awareness of the Fire Service and the contributions that our firefighters make to the community on a daily basis. These vehicles are also used to garner the attention of our firefighters and their families with the hope that we can engage some of those who may need the services of our Team as a counseling unit.

At several recent events, we have been asked by many in attendance if we had any posters or photos of the vehicles for them to keep as souvenirs. After some thought and discussion, we have decided to have posters and postcards made of these vehicles to give to folks who attend the various functions. We are currently working with a group of women firefighters in the Lowcountry to have posters made with them appearing  with the various vehicles. We also hope to use some of  their department's current in-service apparatus along with our vehicles in these posters. These women, from many different departments throughout the Lowcountry, have come together to support and participate in this project. They have collectively agreed that they want these posters to be professionally done with them appearing in their turnouts pants, boots and helmets, along with logo t-shirts of their various departments. It is their hope that these posters will help promote their individual departments and the Fire Service. We propose to add job fairs and career days to our list of appearances to recruit other young people to join the Fire Department. We also plan to have tables set up at our various events where they can appear to discuss their careers, promote the Fire Service, and autograph the posters for people in attendance.

I have been personally impressed with the level of professionalism shown by these women in the planning of this project as well as their excitement and desire to promote not only their own departments but the Fire Service in general. Stay tuned for more to come!