BENNETTSVILLE—Bri Carroll had a dream as she grew up in Central Illinois. She wanted to become a firefighter.
“Ever since I was little, it was either becoming a police officer or going into fire service,” she said. “It grew on me as a little kid watching the fire trucks go by. In my hometown, when the volleyball team won a game or something they would take their celebration laps on the fire trucks at night after the game. And I thought, man, this is so cool.”
Carroll said she remembers going to trunk-or-treat events where the fire department was featured and watching the firefighters interact with the community made her want to be a part of this kind of work when she grew up.
“That’s something so small, but it makes a big difference,” she said. “That sparked my interest from the beginning.”
Carroll got her chance to work with the fire department in her hometown in 2012 as a volunteer. “I was able to start to get a feel for it, learning the truck, learning the gear and all the little things. I was on there in Illinois for a while with that department, then I moved to Indiana. I got on at a department there and took classes there and got some of my certifications,” she said.
But things changed for Carroll in the best way when she made the move to South Carolina about three years ago.
“When I moved here is when I really started getting into school and classes and seeing how well they help you here,” she said. “And that was one of the biggest reasons that I moved here. I moved here to further my fire career.” And Carroll also met her wife here, making the move to Bennettsville a win-win, professionally and personally.
“I heard a lot of good things about South Carolina and the fire academy and how they help you and everything. I’ve gotten so much training on the clock, off the clock, book-wise, class-wise, hands-on training. It’s been an eye-opening experience.”
And it’s a historic experience as well, Carroll is the first female full-time firefighter with the Bennettsville Fire Department.
“My parents always raised me [with the belief] that if you want something bad enough you’ll set your mind to it and you’ll fight for it. You can always accomplish your dreams if you set your mind to it. This is a dream that I always wanted was to be a full-time firefighter. It was not easy, especially being a female,” she said.
Carroll said a few detractors said this was a man’s job, but instead of being dissuaded from her goal, she used those comments as motivation to push forward.
“That gave me a little bit more motivation, I didn’t take it as something to be negative about. I took it as, to prove my point that women can do just about anything a man can do. You can do anything you set your mind to and I knew I wanted this since I was a little kid, so I fought for my dream and here I am,” she said.
Carroll said BFD is one big family. “Being the only female here, it took not only getting used to for me, but for them as well,” she said. “These guys have my back, 100%. This is our home away from home and when we’re here, we make sure things get done.”
And in the downtown, Carroll said, like families do, they hang out and have a good time together. But the most important part of every day is keeping the city safe.
She recalled responding to a traffic accident where a family traveling from Myrtle Beach needed to be extracted from the vehicle. “There was a little girl in the back seat in her car seat. She was awake and she was alert, but she was scared. I have two kids of my own. So, I hopped in the back and I was talking to her and calming her down, asking her what her name was. She was showing me her new stuffed animals and she had a flamingo and I love flamingos.”
Carroll made an important connection with the little girl as EMS and the other firefighters worked the scene — and it wasn’t just a conversation — Carroll was keeping the little girl awake and monitoring her before she could be flown to a hospital for treatment.
“I was able to be that child’s stability at that point and calm her down and keep her awake like we needed. It’s little things like that, that stick with you,” she said.
Now that Carroll is living her dream of being a full-time firefighter, you have to wonder how reality match up to her childhood dream?
“I would say, reality is better than the dream. As a little kid, I’m thinking about the little things. But now that I’m actually in here, it’s a lot more work — it’s a lot more physical work, it’s a lot more mind work. You always have to be on your A-game.”
And this is everything Carroll ever dreamed of doing.