COLUMBUS — You name it and Columbus Fire and Rescue has responded to it. At least, that’s what Chief Duane Hughes told The Dispatch on Thursday.
Besides fire and medical emergency calls, Hughes said, the department has shown up to calls about a possum in the walls of a house, pets stuck in drainage grates, children with their heads stuck in stair railings and plenty more. The most memorable call he has ever been on, Hughes said, was nearly 19 years ago, when he and two other crew members got a report of a teenager experiencing abdominal pain.
“She had actually delivered a baby,” Hughes said. “As I moved this baby to assess it, I noticed she was crowning, and there was another baby presenting. I looked up to relay this information to my firefighter and captain who were there, and I noticed they had conveniently relocated themselves outside the house … and so I ended up delivering two little ones that day.”
State District 41 Rep. Kabir Karriem recognized the constant willingness the department has to answer its community’s calls on Thursday morning at Fire Station 4, when he presented a certificate to Hughes and other members of the CFR team acknowledging the department’s “service, commitment, strength and enduring devotion.”
Karriem said there has never been a time that he has called on the fire department for help or community support and they did not show up in one form or another.
“It’s just a recognition of the service that Columbus Fire Department does for this community,” Karriem said. “Our heroes sometimes go unnoticed, unsung. And it was just my way of not only saying ‘thank you’ for the service that they do, but recognizing the men and women of this department for the service that they give, not only to this community but to the state of Mississippi.”
Karriem said he also presented a certificate to the Columbus Police Department in May for its service. Karriem faces challenger Pierre Beard in a November special election for the state representative seat.
The fire service was legally established on April 4, 1840 with the purchase of its first fire apparatus and the adoption of the department’s rule and duties, even before Columbus was officially chartered by the state on March 8, 1884, according to a self-assessment manual from the department available online.
The department was originally known as Columbus Fire Department, before it changed its name in 2005 to reflect its all-hazards response philosophy. Hughes said at that time, the department added technical rescue programs to its services, including dealing with hazardous materials, confined space rescue, high angle rope rescue, overland search and more.
By 2014, CFR became the first fire department in the state of Mississippi to receive international accreditation from the Center for Public Safety Excellence. The department has maintained this accreditation ever since, which requires an annual compliance report and a review and hearing every five years. The only other department in the state that has achieved this accreditation is the Gulfport Fire Department.
CFR is also currently the only fire department in the state that conducts overland search and rescue, Hughes said. The skill has been useful in the past, he said, when CFR was called upon in 2017 by the Department of Defense to recover bodies and weapons from a plane crash in Leflore County.
CFR has maintained the majority of the technical rescue services it added after changing its name, except dive rescue, Hughes said, as budget restrictions have prevented the department from becoming recertified in those skills.
But there are lots of other services CFR provides to the community. That includes free smoke alarm testing and installation and installation of car seats by certified technicians, Hughes said.
Currently, CFR employs 60 firefighters, though it has a budget for 65, Hughes told The Dispatch in a text message.
Hughes said the members of his department don’t do any of what they do with the expectation of receiving praise. But he hoped the recognition from Karriem would fuel the department’s continued efforts to serve the community, and he said it was more than “an accolade to hang on a wall.”
“It’s actually a challenge,” Hughes said. “And it’s going to be a challenge to the members of this department to go forth and continue maintaining that servant mentality and do those things that helped earn this recognition, to fortify us so we continue to do it in the future.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
