CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – The Horry County Fire Rescue is working on building a recruitment team to bring more diversity to the department.
Mark Nugent with the fire rescue was recently put in charge of recruitment and retention, and he said adding more diversity is first on his list of things to do. He is looking to build a team of about 8-10 people to help with this effort.
“We have African-Americans, Hispanics, and females, but that’s where we have the lowest numbers,” said Nugent. “So we want to reach out and target those groups, because that’s what our community is made of.”
Nugent gave an example of when the fire rescue was installing smoke alarms in a mostly Hispanic community. He said having officers that spoke Spanish helped them reach more of the people living there.
“They got us in those homes where we needed to get smoke alarms up, and it’s just another example as to why we need increased diversity in our organization.”
To put his diversity effort in action, Nugent will go to colleges around the state and in other places to recruit college athletes, both male and female.
“They’re perfect people to put in the position of a firefighter,” said Nugent. “They’re college-educated, they’re athletic, and they can play team sports, and we’re definitely a team organization here in the fire service.”
Nugent said he hopes to have the recruitment team in place by January 2018.
