Black firefighters recall early days in SC department

Jun. 3--Fifty-five years on, Abram Coles still knows his way around the fire station on Harden Street.

He should. The Columbia Fire Department built it specifically for him and seven others who made up "The Eight" -- the city's first paid black firefighters.

"We had a hard time during segregation," said Coles, 82, the last living member of the group that first came together in 1953. "They didn't want us in the department."

"They" were the white firefighters of the day, who did not want to sleep in the same dorms with the black men who were risking their lives just as they were, Coles said.

It would be another 12 years before "The Eight" would be integrated into other firehouses around the city -- each assigned to a different station.

"They thought there was going to be fights" once the black firefighters moved into other stations. They thought they would be rid of us once and for all, but we proved them wrong."

There were no fights.

"They were accepted because they knew the job so well," said Deputy Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins, who began working with Coles as a young rookie just a few years out of high school in the late 1970s.

Over the years, Coles became Jenkins' mentor and father figure who earned his reputation as a tough but fair leader.

"He wasn't just the type that just told you," said Jenkins, who today is the department's second-in-command. "He would listen to you and if you had a good idea, he was the man who would put it into action."

Today, two out of every five Columbia firefighters is a minority, Jenkins said.

Just last month, retired firefighter J.D. Williams Sr. died, leaving Coles as the last to represent "The Eight."

EARNING RESPECT

It has been more than 20 years since Coles -- still trim, though his hands shake from Parkinson's Disease -- retired from the Columbia Fire Department, having attained the rank of captain.

"But the guys still talk about me," said Coles, standing outside the Harden Street station on a recent visit.

One of those guys, logistics officer Charles Smith smiled when he heard Coles was stopping by. He pressed a blue Columbia Fire Department hat and T-shirt for Coles into Jenkins' hands.

Technology has changed firefighting since Coles traded in his gear for garden tools.

Back in his day, hoses were large and cumbersome, he said, and some had to dry for 24 hours before they could go back on the trucks.

At the Harden Street station, Coles stooped to examine a newer version.

"They got it sophisticated now -- but I could make it in here," Coles said with smile.

Newspaper articles from 1952, when construction began on the station, and 1953, when the black firefighters started, reveals there was keen interest in the group.

A headline from the May 19, 1953, Columbia Record reads: "Negro Firemen Learning Fast." The article reported "the officers in charge of the training program reported they were amazed at the speed with which the new men are catching on to the work."

While Coles said the integration of "The Eight" didn't result in any battles within the stations, he did have to fight to get promoted to captain and to give black firefighters proper equipment.

As a result, he said, he was labeled a troublemaker, but he knew his job and no one could argue with that.

When he moved to the Shandon fire station, he finally wore the white shirt of an officer. But that didn't stop people from going directly to the white officer who wore the blue shirt of an engineer for information.

Through hard work, though, Coles and "The Eight" earned the respect of their colleagues.

"They said, 'Oh, you came from Shandon with Capt. Coles. We'll take you. We know you're good,'" he said.

TENDING GARDEN

Coles still has a little red notebook with the entries he jotted down on the "chemistry of fire" and strategies for attacking particular fires in the 1970s.

"A lot of people think firefighting is just sitting around playing checkers. There's some of that, but we work."

He recalled the story of a furniture store fire in downtown Columbia one brutally cold night. The rungs on the ladders iced over and several men fell and were injured. An engine driver passed out from carbon monoxide poisoning from the exhaust from his truck.

"Those gauges are there for a reason," Coles said.

Coles said he still thinks often of his firefighting days -- but he doesn't miss it. He stays busy with his garden at the North Columbia home he shares with his wife, Jackie Coles, a retired school principal.

There are tomatoes, corn squash and cucumbers to tend to.

He's mulling a trip to Memphis, Tenn., where his daughter and 4-year-old triplet grandsons live.

Every now and then, he said, someone asks him if he's ready to come back to the fire department.

"Gardening is my job now."

Reach Tate at (803) 771-8549.