| Sources |
- [S4] Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), 20 Apr 2000.
Betty Branam Williford obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 5 Feb 2009.
New fire chief busy with plans
By COBEY HITCHCOCK
chitchcock@themountainpress.com
Curt Habraken/The Mountain Press
Pittman Center Fire Chief Jeff Nichols, named to his post in December, has volunteered with the department since 1992.
PITTMAN CENTER - He used to be a jack of all trades, but now he's a master of one.
Jeff Nichols, the Pittman Center Community Volunteer Fire Department chief appointed in mid-December, is a former plumber and all-around handyman but now holds the Master Firefighter title at his full-time job in Knoxville.
Nichols moved to Sevier County in 1986, got married to lifelong Pittman Center resident Rosemary Williford in 1987 and began fighting fires on a voluntary basis for Pittman Center and Gatlinburg in 1992.
"It didn't take me long to figure out this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life," said Nichols, who got his first paying gig as a firefighter in 1999. "Getting the full-time job in Knoxville was a dream come true."
But full-time translates to an average of 10 days per month in the firefighting business, which leaves plenty of time for Nichols to volunteer in Pittman Center, where he's resided the past 15 years.
So Nichols now spends his "days off" working hard at his new chief position.
"Being chief, my activities have really picked up," said Nichols. "It's getting to be a full-time job, but I'm relying a lot on the other members to help me out.
"I had no desire to be a chief anywhere. It's something that just happened. But I'll do the best I can at it. I'm learning the ropes, because this is a whole new ball of wax. There's much more responsibility, and there's things I'm trying to change along the way. There's just so much stuff to do right now, hopefully things slow down for me after the next couple of months."
Top priority for the new chief will be finishing Station Two located along Highway 321 in the Rocky Flats area near the Cocke County line. The station has been under construction for about two years, although Pittman Center has been running calls out of it for nearly a year.
The electricity and water were turned on just two weeks ago, and it still lacks some trim work, painting and other odds-and-ends, but the Fire Department also received a $48,000 federal grant last week, which will be used to pay for Station Two's exhaust ventilation system, a washing machine and more than $20,000 in exercise equipment.
Station Two is a two-story, five-bay facility that, according to Nichols, has already paid for itself in response time.
"We've got guys that can be at the station within two minutes or less," said Nichols. "And we can have a truck on the road a minute after they get to the station."
But Nichols' work won't end upon completion of Station Two. In fact, if things go according to hopes and plans, Pittman Center will be expanding its firefighting operation with Station Three, which is anticipated to be located along Highway 321 near the Emerts Cove area.
"We're trying, and that's my goal ... to get a third station," said Nichols. "That would really help with response time in that area, and it would also help to bring everyone's homeowners insurance down by as much as 35 percent. Station Three is very important and a high priority."
Station Three would be about half the size of Station Two.
"Pittman Center's mission is to preserve our mountain heritage, so we can't just throw anything up in that area," said Nichols. "It has to be nice, blend in and be something the community is proud of."
The local fire department has been in existence for 25 years, and Station One near Cobbly Nob has been standing for more than 20 of those years. The department currently has three fire engines, three reserve fire engines, one support vehicle, two tankers, two wildland or "brush" trucks, one wildland support vehicle and one 100-foot ladder truck with a working capability of seven to eight stories.
The department currently has 30 volunteer members, including Nichols' wife, Rosemary, and their 20-year-old son, Zakk. The Nicholses also have a younger son, Cory, who is a freshman at Carson-Newman. Rosemary originally joined the Pittman Center department in 1992 as a photographer, but she is now a full-time firefighter in Knoxville and also Pittman Center's training officer.
Zakk started in the Pittman Center junior program at the age of 16 and now works part-time for the Gatlinburg and Sevierville fire departments.
Pittman Center Mayor Glenn Cardwell couldn't have been more pleased with Nichols' appointment to the chief position.
"I'm glad he got it," said Cardwell. "He well deserves it. He's been a good neighbor, a good man in (Hills Creek Baptist Church), and firefighting runs in his family.
"He's able and capable. The Pittman Center Fire Department is on the move and on the growth, and it's meeting the needs. You never know when the enemy of fire will break out, but when it does, it's comforting to know that you've got friends in the volunteer department that will respond."
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