I’m writing this piece on April 25, 2025, which is my 20th anniversary in the fire service and with the only department that I ever worked for. I remember my first shift like it was yesterday, and then there’s everything in between.
How do I put into words what these past 20 years have taught me, how they changed me, and what they taught my department, this profession and the world of emergency services.
During these 20 years, I, along with the other members of the Charleston, SC, Fire Department (CFD), experienced nine line-of-duty deaths on June 18, 2007. We experienced four suicides since then. We carried about 30 caskets and folded American flags to present to family members at funerals. One hundred ninety-seven original members left the department since June 18, 2007, with their own struggles from the incident. I am one of 49 of the 246 members who were with the department that day who remain on the job. With the department growing to 472 positions as of July 1, 2025, that’s 423 new team members for whom we must be their biggest cheerleaders, so they can take what we’ve done to the next level.
We’re a young department, which I see as a benefit if we coach, lead, mentor and cheer for these young folks. They want to be led. They want progress. They want leadership with love. They want better working conditions. They want nicer equipment and new stations. They want to showcase their skills. Just as all of us wanted on our come up as well. That’s a good thing.
We must be their biggest cheerleaders, advocates and mentors, so they can move the needle, just as we have. At national conferences and at other departments, people marvel at what we’ve accomplished since June 18, 2007, while continuing to push hard for even more progress.
‘I was an absolute clown’
As you read this, it’s June 2025, which marks the 18th anniversary of the Sofa Super Store Fire where nine CFD firefighters died. I’d like to highlight the progress that we made while also being real to the seriousness of this profession and the challenges that all of us face.
Let me be very clear on this: I take this job seriously. It’s not a joke. It isn’t a profession to hang out hoping that nothing happens. Do you know why I can and do say that? Because that’s how I reported to work on June 18, 2007. I believed that it was just another easy shift, with no serious calls and that everything was funny. I was an absolute clown. My plan was to watch TV, take a nap, not train, play video games and go home. You see how that worked out. The next thing that I knew I was standing at a pump panel about 30 feet from the front door of a fully involved, 42,000-sq.-ft. furniture store and unable to put the engine in pump to give water to those fellas who went inside. They didn’t come out until hours later, when our search crews removed their burned, morphed, melted and mangled bodies that were buried underneath steel trusses. How do you wrap a body that’s burned so badly in an American flag? Yeah, you never thought about that, have you?
That’s our reality. Don’t try to understand or even judge that until you’ve walked in our boots. You never will understand.
Rally around one another
We must be real with the challenges that we face. Sometimes, departments won’t have the best tools, equipment, pay, stations, apparatus or benefits, but they do have a chance to make a true difference in people’s lives and to work hard to improve all of those important items that I just listed for our well-being now and for future generations.
I know that no department is perfect. If you believe that there are some out there, go visit them, and you’ll learn quickly that all organizations have challenges. However, it’s how the team rallies around one another to take on the challenges. That’s from the top level to the newest person in the organization.
Questions
Are you cheering for your teammates to be successful? Are you helping coach and guide them to be better? Are you listening to them on the radio as they try to control their nerves the best that they can, while talking to them like they can hear you?
This is me listening to our folks on an emergency: “Deep breath. You know what to do. Hit your marks. Stay calm. Yes, you did it. Keep going! You got it!”
It sounds as though I’m watching them on TV, but I feel like I’m right there with them, because in my heart, I am.
I then will send a text at any time during the day or night just to say, “outstanding work” or “you sounded like a baller.”
Why wouldn’t you cheer for your folks? They’re your people, your family and who you put in all of the long hours for.
Believe in hope
In the past 18 years, according to budget reports, the CFD’s budget increased from approximately $14,519,550 in 2007 to approximately $62,018,456 in 2025. That’s a total dollar increase of approximately $47,498,906 and more than a 325 percent approximate increase since 2007. About 90 percent of that budget is for the people: pay, benefits, retirement, etc. Also since 2007, as noted above, we will increase to 472 positions as of July 1, 2025, from 246 in 2007. That’s 226 new positions. Furthermore, since 2018, when our new fire chief, Dan Curia, came to the department to lead us (now as the longest-tenured fire chief since June 18, 2007), our budget grew substantially each year—from approximately $34,612,958 in 2018 to approximately $62,018,456 this year—for a total of approximately $27,405,498, or just under 80 percent. This increase doesn’t include the yearly apparatus replacement plan, which is in the millions of dollars, or new stations and a new training facility, which is in the tens of millions.
What we did in 18 years to improve the department is incredible, and it’s because of the people who did the work. We’re passionate, driven, dedicated, and focused on coaching, mentoring, developing and cheering on the new generation in the department, to help to make it the best organization that it ever has been. Better schedules, benefits, stations and equipment. Most importantly to me, better care—true care—for one another.
For everyone who’s in the fire service to make the same kinds of things possible, we must be new members’ biggest cheerleaders. Guide them, coach them, be there for them and love them, even if they don’t love you back. I know in my heart and soul that it can be done. I see it in the 472 people of the CFD who want to make a difference.
As Ted Lasso said, “I believe in hope. I believe in belief.” I know that our department can do it. All 472 of us. Together.
Dr. David Griffin
Dr. David Griffin is the assistant chief of administration in Charleston, SC. He was the operator of the first-due engine on June 18, 2007, when nine of his fellow firefighters perished. Griffin has come through the ranks in operations in every uniformed position, from firefighter to battalion chief and shift commander to his current position, during his 20-year career in Charleston. He has a bachelor's degree in education from The Citadel, a master's degree in executive fire service leadership, and a doctorate of education in organizational leadership and development. Griffin is the author of "In Honor of The Charleston 9: A Study of Change Following Tragedy," among three other books. He is an international speaker and instructor, a certified Chief Fire Officer and Chief Training Officer with The Center for Public Safety Excellence, an IFSAC/Pro Board-certified Fire Officer IV and a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer Program from the National Fire Academy. He is a graduate of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Executive Education program: Senior Executives in State and Local Government and of the Psychology of Leadership program at Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business. Griffin is the owner of On A Mission, LLC, at drdavidgriffin.com.
