"If Those Walls Could Talk" - Thoughts and Memories of
the Fire House and Fire Department
By Randy Mathis - Former Chief
of the Pacolet Mills Volunteer
Fire Department and Rescue
Squad
Introduction
I ran into Tommy Smith (a former Rescue Squad Captain)
at the Pacolet Indian Summer Festival last Saturday. It
was held this year at the Flat on
what was once the area where the upper mill stood. Directly
out the Highway stands the old Fire Dept/ Rescue Squad
building (empty now) which sits beside the Dummy tracks (now gone), that
once led down to the lower
mill. Tommy said he had spoke to Doug Jett
(Another former Rescue Captain) just a few minutes
before who said “If those walls could talk”. After we
arrived back home that evening from taking one of the
Grandbabies to the festival, I started thinking for a
while on that very thing. That building housed Fire
Rescue operations along with the small station at
Pacolet Station for over 40 years. It's where the Pacolet Mills FD was
chartered, It was where the Pacolet
Mills Rescue Squad was started.
It is where many lifelong careers were started and the
same place many good hearted people found out that it
was not the type of business for them. You see, it was
all volunteer and ran on donations with a little help
from each town every year.
The Fire Dept. wasn’t that busy in those days, although
we drilled every Tuesday Night. I believe Rescue Meeting
night was on Monday evenings and it was always busy. If
not answering sometimes 2 or 3 calls for help each day.
(see the squad covered an area that was a part of 3
counties). Between calls, there was training and
fundraisers. Between that was time for a lot of single
young guys and later on gals to sit around and have a
lot of fun. Not fun like people consider today. There
were no video games or the internet.
There were 3 channels on the TV that nobody watched but
there was a lot of music played while we played cards
and joked or did something like plan our next trip to
the blood bank to help people in that way. The married
guys were trusted to come and hang out too. Not just to
show us Jr. members how to play a good practical joke,
but it also put them near the ambulances in case a call
came in they wouldn’t have to drive from home and cause
delays.
It’s the place were 12 of 15 state championships by the
heavy rescue team and many runners-up and honorable
mention trophies were brought home. It’s where our
parents trusted that there was at least some level of
moral supervision and it gave us somewhere to go to get
out of their hair. Its where, as teenagers, we were
allowed to stay overnight. Before the upstairs was
built, we would stay on Friday nights and sleep on top
of the hose bed of the Fire Trucks.
An oil furnace hung from the ceiling with ductwork hung
over the top of the trucks. (The concern was to keep the
trucks warm and ready in the winter) Never mind us, the
spirit of friendship and fun kept us warm. But I do
remember several winter nights before dozing off in a
teenagers mind. Wow, if we have a fire and I’m sleeping
on top of the Fire Truck we ain’t got to get up and run
nowhere, we can lay here warm under our blankets and
some Senior Fireman will come drive us to the Fire. It
happened more than once.
Part I - Beginnings
When I joined the volunteer fire department in 1974, at
the mill station, we had a 57 Chevrolet and a 41 Ford.
Pacolet Station had a 69 Ford and an army tanker
(Homemade) ALL involved did the very best they could
with what they had which was practically nothing - 10
coats and helmets at the Mill Station on the 57
Chevrolet. If you were one of the first 10 you got a
coat and helmet. Number 11, too bad. But we also thought
the Pacolet Station guys were rich because they had
boots and pants. Not true.
One time, the current Chief Dale Worthy of the
consolidated “Pacolet Fire District”, who was Chief at
the Mill Station at that time, came back from Government
Surplus in Columbia with some gear for us. We were
probably 17 or 18 years old. Great! It was used aircraft
firefighting gear. Have you ever seen any? Its silver
and not just silver it looks like tin foil. Full sets,
coats and pants. So, in those days, if people saw an old
Fire Truck with silver people on the back, you were not
seeing things, it was us. Hey, it was a lot warmer than
what we had.
This story is a tribute to Engine 1. It’s significant
because the strides that were made by the Fire Dept. to
turn directly into the future were made in and around
the purchase of this modern Firefighting MACHINE in
1985, along with proper turnout gear and hand sized
pagers so that we could answer quickly.
Engine 1
Engine 1 was designed by the Firemen of the Pacolet Fire
Dept and built by Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton,
Wisconsin. Just a few of the features were the Cat
Diesel Engine with an Allison Auto Trans, 1000 gallon
water capacity, Pump operators panel on top so he could
see the Fire ground. Also, seats with air packs mounted
in the seating areas for quick deployment of personnel,
once on scene, and a 3500 Winco generator with 2 -1500
watt floodlights. We were definitely coming out of the
DARK ages. Also, it had a 1250 gpm pump and 4
pre-connected attack hose lines and a full bed of water
supply hose. She’s a FIREFIGHTING MACHINE the likes of
which we had never seen. She has possibly seen more
firefighting pumping hours than all of our other current
units combined just because it was the first of it’s
kind to our area.
In conjunction with all of this, the SC Fire Academy had
released the 3 level interior structural firefighting
certification. Dale Worthy and I were SC Fire Academy
Field Instructors and also paid firefighters. (The first
of what would be many career paid firefighters to come
from the Pacolet area). So you can see the perfect storm
of personnel, modern equipment and training that came
together and improved the way would deliver service
forever.
The following photos show other views of Engine 1 and
its equipment.
Part 2 - "It’s Cold as Hell"
Any firefighter from anywhere that it gets below
freezing will completely understand this statement if
they fought any fire during the winter months. The
thermometer reads 8 degrees this night and if you
forget, the dispatcher may announce it over the radio
just to remind you that you left a warm bed to come
volunteer for this. Its about the year 1987 and we are
at the Martex Warehouse again. It’s about 3 in the
morning and we’ve been pouring water on this massive
cloth warehouse for hours. The sprinklers were operating
when we arrived so we tried to make our usual interior
fire attack, got soaked and were driven back, so we were
called out due to possible building collapse and safety
reasons and turned into human popsicles. Fire Gear
Coats, Pants, Boots. Helmets, and Gloves contrary to
popular belief are neither Fireproof nor Waterproof.
They are Fire and Water resistive. Which means “If you
stay too close to the fire to long you’re gonna get
burned” and if you’re exposed to water long enough
you’re gonna get soaked. Ok, enough of Science class.
During this segment of years, Bill Hall, now the
Spartanburg County Fire Marshal, was the Croft Fire
Chief. He rang us up early and often in those times,
partially because we had gotten some decent equipment
but mostly for the well trained and aggressive nature of
the Pacolet and Pacolet Mills Firefighters.
Fire was the opponent, smoke was an enemy and we with
our modern training, with breathing air on our back, and
good gear were there to see that it was stopped dead
cold in it’s tracks, which usually happened, but not
tonight.
At some time they had built or rebuilt this
concrete/steel building and at some point a business
decided to fill it full of thousands of bundles of
recycled cloth waste. This is one fire that is not going
out until it’s through, no matter what we do. So, ok,
it’s a little on the nippy side, we’re soaked, the
buildings burning to the ground and all the water we can
pour is being poured, so let’s find some coffee. This is
literally gonna be 3 - 7 day event for the host
Department.
I’m going from a cold numbed memory, but I think after
they got the local Rescue Squad 18 building opened and
equipped to handle people, Croft started rotating all
Firefighters through to warm them up. Me and Chief Ken
Bailey, from the Pacolet Fire Department went to set in
this little truck of his to warm up and we could still
see operations on our side of the building.
There, I witnessed some unforgettable incidents as the
Chief revs on the little motor of the truck to try and
stir some heat, it’s not all that important we’re numb
to the bone. Just a little defrost so we can see out
will be good enough. We’re watching now as this Fireman,
from who knows where, is walking across the loading dock
area. Now, we knew from hours before, that there were
several standard loading docks but the one on the end
has a sloping grade making it deep into the ground. It
had filled up completely and with 2-3 inches of water
covering the rest of the lot to the unknowing eye it all
looked level. So here he goes, just strolling along
enjoying the weather and sploosh! He goes clear out of
sight into the loading dock pit, we’ll call it. He
bobbed back up like a cork. Air in his tank, I guess,
helped push him to the surface and a couple of guys
rushed over to help him up. He was taken somewhere for
extensive rehab and some dryer clothes.
Another Fire department, who just refused to go warm up
in rehab, staved off the cold for awhile. Then, we saw a
lot of activity around their unit and two firemen light
in on a pile of wood pallets with fire axes making
firewood. They piled it up, put a little fuel from their
gas can and Wow- what a fire. I thought they were going
to break out into a war dance it felt so good to them.
Chief Bailey and I are just laughing at them, but, Hey,
it worked.
One of our fireman told the Chief “It’s cold as hell out
here”. Chief said FD "X" has a pretty good fire going
with all those chopped up pallets. No reply, we were too
tired and too cold to keep talking.We were in fact
falling into a hypothermic stupor nearing daybreak when
a ground shaking crash took place. A section of the pre
cast concrete wall let go. If anyone had been in the
area they would have been history. We checked on
everyone in our area and moved them back a bit more just
for an extra margin of safety.
Day is breaking now and soon some us will be needing
rides back to Pacolet so we can get ready for work. We
do work, you know, what we’ve been doing all night was
for free. Not that we minded in those days, and still
today, Firefighters have a sense of duty. To their
community, to the Fire Dept. they serve, but, most of
all they don’t want to let down each other when duty
calls.
At that time, I had to be on duty at North Spartanburg
at 8 am and Headman (Randy Bailey) at BASF chemicals in
Whitestone where he worked. We came down the road in the
Chief’s little truck and didn’t remove a stitch of gear.
Normally, you take your helmets, gloves, and probably
coat, when you come off the fire ground. We came down
the road helmets, gloves and all still on. He let me out
at my house where I lived with my wife and kids below
the Fire Station. I dug out my house key, scrubbed my
boots off on the frost bitten ground, went inside
downstairs, chunked a couple of logs on the coals and
stretched out in front of the heater and began to
thaw.
My wife got up to get the kids ready for school, I
guess, and probably smelled me. She gave her normal
questions and directive:
“Ya’ll
have a bad one?”
“Yep.”
“Are
you OK?”
“Yep.”
“Good don’t leave
that stinkin Fire Gear in the house.”
“Yes
Mam.” - She is a jewel, we been together more
than 3 decades.
I showered and put on a uniform, kissed them all and
headed out to do my 24 hour shift at the North
Spartanburg Fire Dept.
This web site has
been started as a public service to share the story of
Pacolet.
