As first responders, firefighters play an outsized role in the health and well-being of their communities.
Volunteer firefighters in 1977Communications Manager Landra Cunningham (@LandraRobertson) embarked on a project to learn more about her hometown fire department. When her dad joined as a volunteer firefighter in 1976, it was one of only three racially integrated fire services in Caswell County, NC.
She is graciously sharing her research in honor of this year's theme for Black History Month: Black Health and Wellness, acknowledging the legacy of Black researchers, medical practitioners, public health partners and community programs.
The Semora Volunteer Fire Department was chartered specifically as an integrated unit in 1972—one of few in the area at that time.
“I personally believe this insistence on diversity from the beginning has made a difference in its successful existence over the past 50 years,” says Landra. “The fire service was one of the spaces where the community as a whole came together to care for and protect all of its members.”
A Q&A with Landra
Tell us about your father, his friends and their community.
My father has volunteered with the fire department for the past 46 years. He has served in a range of roles from firefighter and medical first responder to compliance lead and equipment acquisition and maintenance manager. He’s now the Assistant Chief. He wears lots of hats, including working closely with the Chief to ensure the department is fully funded and equipped, maintains strong ISO fire ratings and sustains solid community relations. Oh, and he still has to respond to calls.
Landell Cunningham
Landell Cunningham's training certificatePeople often think volunteer fire and first response service is less involved than career service. In many ways, it is more so. Dad and the volunteers worked full-time jobs and cared for families while training multiple nights a week, taking weekend classes to maintain their certifications, raising money to keep the department running, and listening for the call that someone needed their help.
And when the call came, they answered no matter what. Midnights, Christmas mornings, calls that were dispatched back to back. They found themselves arriving on scene to calls for their own mom, spouse or child.
Dad is very proud and honored to be a part of what the community has created together. The responders, their families, and the community at large built the department from the ground up—when they started they had little funding, no central dispatch to receive calls, and no station house.
What is something surprising that you learned in your research?
