Local Firefighter Jumps To Robertson County E.M.A.
ROBERTSON COUNTY (Smokey Barn News) – The Robertson County Emergency Management Agency ( E.M.A.) has added a new member to their team.
On August 14, Chance Holmes of Springfield will officially become the E.M.A. Deputy Director for the Robertson County branch of E.M.A. Holmes’ will report to E.M.A Director R.L. Douglas.
Holmes has been a Firefighter, Advance E.M.T. and a Hazmat Specialist with the Springfield Fire Department for 17 years, joining the department back in 2000 but over the years Holmes developed a love for E.M.A…
Holmes has already accumulated the necessary training and certification to become a valuable asset to Robertson County E.M.A as a volunteer. Now, as of August 14, Holmes will trade his volunteer status, leaving his post at the Springfield Fire Department behind, to join Robertson County E.M.A. full time as a Technician/Specialist in Hazardous-Materials.
Homes has also accumulated enough training and experience to be a State Certified HAZMAT Instructor for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and conducts classes throughout middle Tennessee.
“Chance will be a great asset to the agency and to the citizens of Robertson County,” said E.M.A Director R.L. Douglas. “He is very motivated and interested in his job and continues to take courses that keep him on top of changes in the HAZMAT arena.”
Holmes has been serving as the Captain of the E.M.A. Initial Response Team as a volunteer for some time, now the move becomes permanent. As a member of E.M.A., Holmes will be on call 24 hours a day 365 days a year in case of a HAZMAT related situation.
“I’m very very excited about the opportunity to move into this role,” Holmes told Smokey Barn News. “Over the past four years, every piece of my training has been for Emergency Management. I know in the fire-service it’s a single resource but in Emergency Management there are more moving parts. You have mitigation, you have preparedness, response, and recovery, all of those different aspects of Emergency Management, and I feel that I have something that I can offer the citizens of Robertson County.”
“We’re very proud to welcome Chance Holmes as the new Assistant Director of Emergency Management for Robertson County. Chance brings 17 years of experience as a firefighter and during that time he has gained all of his Emergency Management Certifications. He’s enthusiastic, very knowledgeable and experienced and we’re looking forward to adding him to the team.” Robertson County Mayor Howard Bradley.
We all know what a Firefighter is, we all understand (at least generally) what a 911 dispatcher does, most people understand what the police do and most of us have a pretty good idea what’s going on when we see an ambulance drive by with lights and sirens blazing away— but mention E.M.A. and most people will give you a blank stare.
Mention E.M.A to any Firefighter, Police officer or E.M.T and they will know exactly what you’re talking about, the Emergency Management Agency. Smokey Barn News has interviewed E.M.A. personnel on many occasions. We’re used to seeing E.M.A. at the scene of any major accident, fire or chemical spill.
E.M.A. can be found at any emergency that has the potential to interrupt local infrastructure or harm citizens. They are an integral part of all the emergency response/resource capabilities that are available in Robertson County. E.M.A. is a 
resource agency utilized by every department and agency within Robertson County. Though very capable independently, think of E.M.A. as the oil that helps all of our first response teams operate more efficiently, whatever they need, E.M.A. will get it done.
Remember that Chemical spill at Greenbrier High? That was E.M.A. in the funny full body suits, they came in to clean up the spill. E.M.A. was also the ones called in to that ACID spill at the Robertson County office building a couple of years ago.
Remember that hand grenade someone tossed out in the middle of Hwy 41S back in 2013? E.M.A. was called in for that one too. E.M.A. was the agency tasked with the job of carefully collecting and transporting the grenade in a blast proof container to a safe location where it was destroyed.
If that didn’t make their job dangerous enough, they also respond to radiological and biological emergencies.
Remember Governor Bill Haslam’s inauguration ceremony? It was held at the Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville. In attendance was more than 1,000 people. With the situation in around the world and other global tensions, security was taken seriously for the event. Most of the security measures that were put into place for the Governor’s inauguration we’ll never know about but there was one team in attendance that was ready just in case, that’s right, you guessed it, E.M.A..
For the inauguration, it was called “The Rapid Response Team” and it was the task of E.M.A. to “assist local and state authorities in the safety and assurance of continuity during the inaugural event.” If you didn’t know what you were looking for you would probably never see them but they were there and ready to leap into action in the event of a situation. For the full story on E.M.A. at Governor Haslam’s inauguration ceremony. CLICK HERE.
“We are very fortunate as a county and a nation to have all the incredible services available to us when we find ourselves in an emergency and even more fortunate that so many fine men and women are willing to invest in all the training needed to bring these services to life.” Robertson County E.M.A. Dir. R.L Douglas.
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