Pacolet Mills Rescue Squad
The Rescue Squad played a vital
role in the Pacolet area for many years. Its story is
told in Volume I of The History of Pacolet as
shown below.
In no particular order, the complete list of Captains of
the Pacolet Mills Rescue Squad were James Bud Winstead,
Roy Newman, Frank Mitchell, Dave Martin, Larry Parris,
Dale Campbell, Gregg Tate, Randy Mathis, Doug Jett,
Billy Owens, Tommy Smith, Tony Goforth, Josh Henson,
Neil Craig, Calvin King, Brian Helms, Billy Fisher,
Walter (Billy) Smith and Randy Brackins. Please let us
know of any omissions.
Sadly, after serving the Pacolet Community for almost 50
years, the Squad closed last year. During this time, the
Squad provided invaluable assistance to many Pacolet
citizens and helped save numerous lives. Randy
Mathis, a former Captain of the Squad, has undertaken an
effort to establish a Memorial Wall of Tribute to
the Rescue Squad to keep their memory alive. Randy
joined the Squad when he was 14 in 1974. He
left the squad in 1984 to pursue a career with the North
Spartanburg Fire Dept. but stayed on with the Pacolet
Fire Dept. as a volunteer where he now serves as a
training advisor with a lot of his friends who also
started as Jr. Fireman back in what they call "the day".
Randy has furnished a list of several unique facts
relating to the Rescue Squad and the Fire Department. These
are:
To date and through
several generations, Pacolet has produced many persons
who went on to be career firefighters at other paid
agencies, myself (Randy) included. To date, more than
32, most who stayed and served many years as
volunteers.
The Rescue Squad was started because another county
squad was giving a demonstration at a Pacolet Tuesday
night Fire Drill. A house fire alarm came in and one
of the firemen was injured. Of course the visiting
squad rendered immediate First Aid.
Pacolet Mills Rescue Squad won the state Heavy
Rescue Competition title for 11 out of 13 years in the
1970's and early1980's ultimately defeating the world
champions from Lambertville, New Jersey. Click on this
link, Heavy Rescue
Competition, to see some photos and more
information about the Competitions.
Members of the Rescue Squad were nicknamed the
“Redbirds” for our colorful all red coveralls that we
wore to compete in.
Pacolet and Pacolet mills were the first
Spartanburg County Fire Departments to start
responding together to all structure fires on the
initial alarm.
The Rescue Squad purchased the first "Jaws of Life"
in Spartanburg County. For years ,we took it to the
Darlington Raceway twice a year and were part of
NASCARS track safety team.
Pacolet and Pacolet Mills were the first county
Fire Departments to merge into one operation in
the late 1990's. See
Pacolet
Fire District.
Randy was a Chief of both the Pacolet Mills
Volunteer Fire Department and the Rescue Squad. He has
also furnished his recollections of time spent in
the Pacolet Mills Fire House when he was young. Read
this at "If Walls
Could Talk".
If you would like to help Randy in his efforts to
establish a Rescue Squad Memorial, he can be contacted
at captmathis@yahoo.com or call
him at 864-316-6362.
If you have a story that you would like to share of
how the Rescue Squad helped you or a member of your
family, please send it to me at gteaster@pacoletmemories.com
and I will put it on the website.
In December, 2015, Easter Steadings Fisher
furnished us more photos of the Pacolet Mills Fire
Department and the Pacolet Mills Rescue Squad. See
these at More
Photos.
The citizens of the Pacolet area have long been aware
and appreciative of the services provided by the Rescue
Squad. One unusual, but very tangible way, to see this
is through the Obituaries of people who have passed away
in Pacolet. Time after time, you will read where the
family requested a contribution to the Rescue Squad in
lieu of sending flowers to the funeral.
PACOLET MILLS RESCUE SQUAD REUNION
Saturday April 14, 2012 at the Pacolet Fire District
Headquarters Hillbrook Circle, Pacolet, SC . Doors open
at 11am Meal and Program around Noon.
For more information, contact Randy Mathis at retchiefmathis@yahoo.com.
This web site has
been started as a public service to share the story of
Pacolet.