It’s starting to get cold outside but it’s still warm in this special episode podcast. This week, we have Chief Victor Williams of the Gallatin Fire Department. A native of Delray Beach Florida, Chief Williams has been the fire department for only four years! Get to know him more as he, together with host John Haggard, discusses the following topics:

• How He Ended up from Delray Beach to the Gallatin Fire Department?
• What Chief Victor Does on His Time-Off
• His 27-Year Service as a Firefighter
• Life Before Firefighting
• Tips to Prevent Fire During Winter
• Having a Fire Extinguisher at Home
• What’s up and Coming for the Gallatin Fire Department
• Special School Programs for Future Firefighters
• Annual Events at the Gallatin Fire Department
• Fire Chief’s Biggest Challenges Today

Transcript

John Haggard 0:02
Welcome to the Miracle Ford Special Edition podcast where we also interview community leaders on topics of interest to the Gallatin and Sumner County area. Today we’re honored to have Chief Victor Williams of the Gallatin Fire Department on the podcast. Chief, welcome to the podcast.

Chief Victor Williams 0:18
Thank you so much, John. I count it an honor to be here and I look forward to our conversation.

John Haggard 0:24
Well, me too, and glad you are here because we’ve got some good questions for you. And before we dive in, though, as to what’s going on in at the Gallatin Fire Department today for people who may be new to the area or new to the podcast, tell us a little bit about you or did you actually grow up in Gallatin?

Chief Victor Williams 0:42
No, I didn’t, John. Actually, I grew up in South Florida, and I am a recent transplant here in the Tennessee area and in Gallatin more specifically. I grew up in a little city called Delray Beach and, just for reference purposes, Delray Beach is a long I-95 corridor on the eastern side of South Florida. And if you look at a map, Delray will be centered about 50 miles northeast of Miami, so most people know where Miami is. And about 20 miles northeast of Fort Lauderdale. So we sit just about 20 miles north of Fort Lauderdale and about 10 miles south of West Palm Beach. So that’s where I grew up. Lifelong resident, I spent 52 years of my life there before we relocated here to Gallatin.

John Haggard 1:32
Now, what got you to Gallatin all the way from Florida?

Chief Victor Williams 1:36
Well, I was working in the Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Department. I had been working there for 23 years and I was about a year and a half away from retirement. And being 52 years old, I believe that I was too young to really retire. I didn’t think my wife would want me sitting around, you know, around the house at 52. I think I would have driven her nuts. So I was looking for something to do because I felt that I still had a lot to offer to the fire service.

And I just so happened to be searching and I came across a posting on indeed.com, in which the city of Gallatin was in a current national search for fire chief. So that was back in September of 2015. So I put in an application in September, and I received notice of an interview in December. So I came up to Gallatin with my wife, did the interview, we kind of stay for a few days, took a look around the community drove around trying to get familiar with it.

A week later, I received a phone call from Miss Debbie Johnson, who is the Human Resources director and I was notified that I had been unanimously chosen to be the new fire chief for Gallatin. So, my wife and I then had a discussion to decide if we want it to take the offer, which we did. And so three months later, we were relocated here in Gallatin, which I started working for the Gallatin fire department on March 7, 2016. So that’s basically how I got from Florida here to Middle Tennessee and in the city of Gallatin.

John Haggard 3:18
What a story and to hear you unanimous! I think there are people out there who are interviewing for positions or about ready to, how do you get a unanimous decision? You can’t get everybody to agree on anything these days.

Chief Victor Williams 3:32
I agree with you. 100% When I received the news, unanimous eight to zero vote to offer me the job. So you know, I took that to heart. And for me, that just, again, followed up and let me know that God’s plan was still moving forward in my life. And all I did then was just was resolved that I was left with the very best job I could to make sure that the council members understood that I was going to live up to their faith and their belief in me. And so that’s been my driving force since I’ve been here. But you’re right. It’s hard to get eight people to agree on anything but to unanimously select the fire chief, I think that was an achievement.

John Haggard 4:14
Absolutely. And you know, before we dive into the Gallatin fire department, Chief, I just wonder what do you like to do on your time off?

Chief Victor Williams 4:22
Well, that’s, I really like to relax, you know? Because I’m in a very high-octane type of environment all week long. It’s constant. It’s a moving target. It’s so much that I’m involved in throughout the week just leading managing and overseeing this 98-member department. So in my spare time, when I have spare time, I really just like to sit down and relax and take it easy. I like to read I’ll read some journals or some fire service-type articles or I read some religious-type material.

And then the other thing I like to do is I just like to sit and cuddle on the blanket with my wife and we watch movies. Now, my wife is a movie connoisseur. She loves movies, and she would watch just about anything. This is great for me, because, you know that way we have that time that we can spend together and we watch everything that you can think of from action movies to dramas, to suspense, but we have that time where we just sit together and reconnect. And that’s how I like to spend my time off when I have some downtime.

John Haggard 5:33
Yeah, so you’ve been in the firefighting business, if I’m counting up all the years, I guess, at least 25 years.

Chief Victor Williams 5:40
Yes, I’m in my 27th year in the fire service now.

John Haggard 5:44
Yes, sir. So what were you doing before?

Chief Victor Williams 5:47
After I received my honorable discharge from the United States Navy, I returned to Florida, and I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I was thinking I wanted to do something in public safety. Because coming out of the military and being exposed to the military life and the regimen of it and wanting to give back and help, I knew I wanted to do something either in law enforcement or in firefighting. And what pushed me over the top was I had some experience with firefighting because, in the Navy, everybody learns shipboard firefighting.

John Haggard 6:22
Yes, I would think so.

Chief Victor Williams 6:23
That is a mandatory skillset that you have to learn. So I had some experience. And when I got back to Florida, I really sought to get into the fire service. Now the challenge for me was because it was so competitive at the time in Florida to get into a fire department. So I had to go out and get some additional training, some additional skill sets, but at the same time, I had to work a full-time job. So I floated different types of jobs that gave me the ability to be able to meet the training schedule that I need.

So I’ve done everything that you can think of, from doing some construction work during the days, While I went to school at night to doing custodial work, cleaning floors, while I went to school during the day, I would do that at night. I drove for UPS dawn, a seasonal gig for three months over the Holidays. Yeah, I’ve done just about any and everything you can imagine to get to where I want it to be, which was to eventually end up in the fire service.

So my background, as far as employment, it’s all over the place. You know, and I’ve done a bunch of different things. And I realized now that I have the best job in the world, and it was worth it all. All of the sacrifices, the crazy hours the crazy jobs I did, it was all worth getting into the fire service because like I said, I’ve been here 27 years now and I wouldn’t trade anything. I really believe it’s the best job in the world.

John Haggard 7:53
You know, it’s been said chief that where you stand today, where I stand today, where anybody stands today. is the sum total of all the actions you have ever taken in life when you think about that. Wow, you could have gone here or there or, you know?

Chief Victor Williams 8:08
And I agree with that. And I think all of those experiences no matter how minute they may have been and how short of a time I spent there, they all makeup, the person that I am today, and I have a wealth of knowledge and experience to go back to and fall back on even while I’m here in the fire service. You know, there’s things that I experienced in some other jobs that can actually relate to what we’re doing here in the fire service.

So I agree with all of those experiences make up the sum of who I am today and I wouldn’t trade any of it. And I think if something is worth fighting for and it’s worth having, then it’s worth sacrificing and giving y