22 recruits graduate

Group largest in department history

Charleston fire officials on Monday welcomed aboard the largest group of recruits in the department's history, boosting manpower and efforts to bring the agency in line with national guidelines.

In all, 22 recruits graduated from the Fire Department's four-week training program. They received their badges from newly appointed Fire Chief Thomas Carr during a ceremony at the Gaillard Auditorium that also featured a speech by State Fire Academy Superintendant Ed Roper.

All of the new firefighters have previous experience at other departments and came to Charleston with advanced fire training, said Mark Ruppel, the department's public information officer. They spent four weeks learning Charleston's rules and procedures, and they are scheduled to work their first shifts starting Saturday, he said.

Increasing manpower on firetrucks was a key recommendation of the six-member expert panel that studied the department in the wake of the June 18, 2007, blaze at the Sofa Super Store on Savannah Highway that killed nine Charleston firefighters. The panel urged the city to increase minimum staffing on each truck to four people to ensure an adequate response to emergencies and bring Charleston in line with national fire service standards.

The new hires bring officials closer to that goal across the department. The department plans to hire an additional 24 firefighters over the next two years, which will allow for at least four people on each truck even when people are out sick or on vacation, Ruppel said.

The department has had no trouble finding people willing to fill those slots, Ruppel said.

New arrival Christian Hallock said he and others were inspired to come to Charleston after watching how the Fire Department pulled together in the aftermath of the sofa store blaze.

"There is a lot of tradition with the city of Charleston Fire Department, and that was a big driving factor for me," said Hallock, a former Beaufort firefighter. "Everybody here that you see or talk to is like family. Everybody is a like a blood brother and there for each other."

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