Georgetown County has once again been named a Fire Safe Community, thanks to the efforts of both Georgetown County Fire-EMS and Midway Fire-Rescue. The departments were recognized this month by Fire Safe South Carolina for community risk reduction efforts in 2023.
Just 154 departments across the state received the Fire Safe designation this year. The communities designated under this program continuously work to reduce fire related injuries, thereby decreasing the risks for residents and firefighters. They also promote consistent fire safety messaging and stress the importance of providing all relative data collected at fire scenes.
“The enthusiasm for obtaining this designation continues to grow,” said Josh Fulbright, the program’s Community Risk Reduction Chief. “Many departments have received this recognition for the first time, some seek it again with new purpose, and others receiving since the 2017 inception continue to build depth within their organization.”
Midway has received the designation annually since it was introduced and County Fire since 2019.
To earn the “Fire Safe South Carolina” designation, fire departments completed courses to improve data quality, trained community partners to deliver in-home safety visits, and further developed their skills through online National Fire Academy courses in risk reduction and assessment.
Last year, because of their efforts, across South Carolina 250 community partners were identified, nearly 500 fire service members were educated on risk reduction-related topics, and more than 650,000 citizens were educated on fire and life safety topics.