Firefighters of the Year Lt. Brandon Maloch (left) and firefighter/engineer Myrick Hatcher
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
The Darlington Fire Department held their Christmas awards banquet recently, and kept up the annual tradition of recognizing firefighters who rendered exemplary service during the past year.
Firefighters of the Year
For only the third time in over 30 years, two people won recognition as Firefighter of the Year.
Myrick Hatcher, a firefighter and engineer, began his career in the fire service seven years ago as a volunteer with Palmetto Rural Fire Department. His interest first sparked when a friend who worked with DFD took him along on a fire call.
“Ever since then, I’ve wanted to do this. I volunteered right after that,” says Hatcher, who comes from firefighting stock. Two of his grandparents and two other female relatives are also in the fire service.
“I like helping people, and I like fighting fires. It’s exciting, it’s a rush,” says Hatcher. “Mostly, it’s helping people, even if it’s with something small…like this lady who had locked her keys in her car. We helped her with that, and just that little gesture meant a lot. You see people smile and it makes their day.”
Hatcher says his family is as “happy as can be” about his choice of career, and his fiancee (also a firefighter) shares his love for the job.
Lt. Brandon Maloch says the firefighting bug bit him early. He recalls riding to fire calls with his uncle, Murray Norwood, when he was just a little boy.
“I got to stand in the bed of his truck and watch them fight the fires,” says Maloch. “Nine times out of 10, I had his pager somewhere in the house playing with it when it went off, so they’d have to come run me down to get the pager. Then we’d go find Uncle Murray somewhere out on the farm, and we’d hop in his little farm truck and take off.”
His ambition solidified in high school when he joined the Explorer program of the Camden Fire Department.
“It sounded exciting,” Maloch says. “The Explorer programs are wonderful things that fire departments do for children, because it helps keep us out of trouble and starts teaching us responsibility.”
Since then, he has worked on a racetrack extrication crew, as a full-time fireman, and a rescue squad member before joining DFD. Maloch says the work is exciting and uniquely fulfilling, with a day’s work involving anything from speaking to school assemblies to rescuing a dog trapped under a porch. Sometimes, on really special days, a firefighter gets the chance to actually bring a person back from the brink of death. Twice in the past year, Maloch has arrived first on scene for emergency medical calls and used an AED (automated external defibrillator) to restart someone’s heart.
“Seeing that first breath after someone has checked out for a minute, seeing them take a breath on their own… that’s probably the biggest reward for me,” says Maloch.
Firefighters of the Year are selected by anonymous votes cast by DFD full-time employees and volunteers.
Volunteer Firefighter of the Year and Drake Beckham Award winner Chuck Norton
Volunteer Firefighter of the Year / Drake Beckham Award Winner
Despite working full time as an S.C. State Transport Police officer, Chuck Norton found time to respond to over 80 calls as a volunteer fireman this year. This level of dedication is nothing new for Norton, who has spent most of his life in public service. Norton began as a paramedic with Darlington County EMS, and served in law enforcement with the City of Florence Police Department and the Darlington County Sheriff’s Office before joining the State Transport Police.
Norton says he became interested in volunteering after his son Trey joined the Darlington County Fire District.
“He said, ‘Dad, it would be really cool if you’d do it with me.’ I said, ‘Naah, I’m good,’ because I was getting up around the 50-year mark,” Norton says. “But he talked me into it. I went back and got certified and I’m glad I did, because I love it.”
Colleagues with State Transport Police have voiced bafflement at Norton’s willingness to roll out of bed at 3 in the morning to shoot a fire hose in freezing weather, but he says the work is rewarding enough to offset the costs.
“To see the people and know that you’ve helped somebody, that you’re really making a difference… Darlington is my home, and I love it. I love serving the community,” says Norton. “If (public service) is in your blood, you can’t get it out.”
DFD Chief Pat Cavanaugh says that running an effective fire department without volunteers like Norton “would not be possible.”
“Right now, we have 10 full-time employees,” says Cavanaugh, noting that in order to maintain Darlington’s favorable ISO rating and keep insurance premiums low, a certain number of firefighters must respond to every fire scene. “If we were going to run this place without volunteers, we would have to hire 30 to 40 people…in all our big events, we average 16 people responding per fire.”
Cavanaugh adds that across the country, fire service volunteerism is declining, but he feels very fortunate that DFD’s call board (including young people in the Explorer program) includes about 40 firefighters willing to answer the call.
The Volunteer Firefighter Award is voted on by all members of the Darlington Fire Department. The Drake Beckham Award, named in honor of past chiefs Frank Drake and Leon Beckham, is sponsored by retired firefighter Bill Garland.
Agitator of the Year and Chief’s Pet Award winner Brandon Wilson
Agitator of the Year / Chief’s Pet Award
Both of these tongue-in-cheek honors were bestowed on engineer/firefighter Brandon Wilson, and DFD Chief Pat Cavanaugh explained that they aren’t meant to be insults… not entirely, anyhow.
“The Agitator of the Year is someone who works hard, but stirs things up behind the scenes. Picking on people, pranking people, keeping people on their toes,” says Cavanaugh. “It’s a good thing because it shows that person is involved and dedicated, but they love to stir the pot… and naming him Chief’s Pet is a little bit of payback for him being an agitator.”
Asked exactly what he did to earn this distinction, Wilson offers a smile and a shrug that could be interpreted as a harbinger of future agitations.
Wilson joined the fire service 25 years ago as a volunteer with Darlington County Fire Service, and became a full-time fireman in 2000. He joined DFD part-time several years ago and came on full-time when an opening arose.
Wilson also serves as Captain with the Society Hill Rescue Squad, and agrees with his fellow firemen that the job offers an addictive blend of high-stakes intensity and low-key helpfulness.
He shares a story of an elderly woman who called 911 because she feared she was becoming sick due to mold in her home. Wilson checked the trouble spots for mold (and found none) and ended up helping her complete a few small repair projects that made her feel safer, and let her know that someone cared enough to help.
“Sometimes people just want someone to talk to,” says Wilson. “She was scared and just wanted someone to listen.”
The entire group agreed that even though fighting fire is exhausting, dangerous, and involves arduous training and long hours, the camaraderie helps make it worthwhile.
Each man describes the Darlington Fire Department as “a family” where they can always find support, good company, and reliably delicious food.
“People are up here on the daily, even when it’s not their shift…We all get along really good, and we cook well and eat well together,” says Maloch. “There’s never a shortage of really good food around a firehouse.”
To learn about volunteer opportunities, visit the Darlington Fire Department at 425 Orange Street, or call 843-398-4013.
Photos by Samantha Lyles
