While living in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1993, Phillip Robinson often passed a volunteer fire department on his way to and from work. One day, its “Help Wanted” sign caught his eye.
“So I stopped in and said, ‘What kind of help do you guys need?’” said Robinson, who was stationed at Charleston Air Force Base at the time. Robinson learned the department was looking for a volunteer firefighter, so he applied that day and received a call the next day about starting the six-month training.
“It gave me a sense of it’s great to know what to do, and not very many people do,” Robinson said. “The reason why it was great is because you have an immediate impact on something at that time. It’s making somebody’s life change rapidly, and if you’re doing your job right in this position, it changes rapidly for the better.”
Robinson is the Cabot Fire Department’s fire chief, and since his arrival in August 2005, he has seen the department grow and obtain new equipment over the years — including a new fire engine that cost nearly $500,000 and was paid for by surplus funds.
“Our firefighters here who were on [a] pension plan had a review of their plan, and they saw that the money that was coming into it, which was done by a tax per se, exceeded what they needed,” he said. “So they said, along with the mayor, ‘Why don’t we reallocate this money because we’ll never spend that? Why don’t we reallocate this money to buying new apparatus?’ So that’s what they did.”
Robinson, who said he is not from anywhere because he grew up in a military family and often moved, had been stationed in Arkansas twice — once around 1996 and again in 2001 — when he was in the Air Force.
“I got a phone call, and the mayor and the folks here were expressing interest in me coming back to be the fire chief here, so I ended up coming back. After several no’s, I ended up saying yes,” said Robinson, who was in the Air Force for nearly 21 years.
Robinson said his experience in the Air Force relates to his current role in the Fire Department.
“It was pretty much a direct translation because my personal mission, both in the Air Force and here, was to provide people what they needed to do their job and do the leadership role and be their leader and supporter, and give them everything they need to do their job,” he said. “The mission’s changed a little bit from a national-defense mission to an emergency-response mission, but even those two missions are very closely related to each other.”
When he first moved to Cabot in the ’90s, people at the Little Rock Air Force Base encouraged him to look into Cabot schools because Robinson had elementary-school-age children. After looking around in Sherwood and North Little Rock, he decided Cabot was the way to go. His thoughts on the community’s small-town atmosphere remained when he returned in 2001.
“My first impression was, ‘Great school system. The schools look great,’” he said. “After I rented a house here in Cabot, I got to looking around at the rest of the community. At that time, it hadn’t had the explosive growth that it has had now. So my impression was a very nice small town, family atmosphere, with great schools.”
Robinson said his motivation to help others first began when he was a teenager living on a rural stretch of Oklahoma road, where accidents often took place because motorists dared to see how fast they could drive around the corners, he said. One day, Robinson heard a crash.
“There was a guy lying in the ditch, and he’d been cut open, still alive and still conscious. Even as a high-schooler, it made me feel like, ‘What can I do for this guy?’ and I realized then I probably didn’t know a whole lot to do,” Robinson said. “I ended up stopping the bleeding and getting him taken care of until the ambulance got there, but that’s what kind of lit the fire.”
While many in Cabot understand the emergency-response duties of the Fire Department, Robinson said, they may not understand the small things the department takes care of, such as inspecting fire hydrants; holding fire-prevention programs at schools, businesses and community organizations; and working on a 24-hours-on-48-hours-off schedule.
“That means that firefighters who are here today started at 7 o’clock this morning, they’ll work until 7 o’clock tomorrow morning, and then they’re off for two days. There are different schedules, but that’s the one we work under,” he said. “That’s probably the one probably 90 percent of fire departments work under. While [the firefighters are] here, we have to have beds for them to sleep in when they can; we have to have kitchens for them to cook in. All of the things that you would have at your house to make life go day by day we have to have here for them.”
The department visits businesses twice a year and area schools each year for fire prevention. Robinson said he’s seen many children utilize the knowledge they’ve learned from the department’s educational programs. One year, a fourth-grader was home alone when the candle he lit caught nearby curtains on fire, Robinson said.
“Everything we had taught him to do, he did that day. No. 1 is to get out of the house. That’s the primary concern — get out of the house. He did that,” Robinson said. “No. 2 is, you have to have a plan of where to go when you get out of the house. We teach them to go across the street to a mailbox, and he had done just that. No. 3, that’s the time to call 911.
I think he had seen a neighbor come out, and he had told him what was going on and told him to call 911.”
Mark Smart, assistant fire chief, said Robinson is the best boss for whom he’s ever worked.
“He is very disciplined and requires that of his subordinates, very strong attention to detail — and again, requires that of his subordinates — and has visionary ideas,” Smart said.
The department has had more emphasis on training and has become more professional since Robinson came on board, Smart added.
“He’s very approachable. He’s always willing to listen to new ideas or concerns from any level of personnel in the Fire Department, and I think that makes for a very productive and open relationship,” Smart said.
Robinson said he has witnessed the department having three stations staffed with up to three people at a time to having four stations with 50 firefighters. The building that currently houses Robinson’s office was at one point a library, a police station, City Hall and an ambulance company. (Its current kitchen is the location where the jail cells once were.) The department aims to build a new station and move out of the city-owned building that’s housed the various tenants over the years.
At a point in time, the department’s current rank structure didn’t exist, Robinson said.
“We had a chief, an assistant chief and then firefighters, and there were three lieutenants,” he said. “We’ve built that structure now up to the point where we have 50 firefighters, and we have a full rank structure, from a firefighter to a fire engineer, fire captain, battalion chief, assistant chief and chief. That growth wasn’t because we’re well to do monetarily, and we just wanted to do that. It was a very necessary thing to build responsibility so we’re more efficient when we’re answering emergency situations.”
The department’s goals for the future include constructing a new fire station, acquiring an additional ladder truck, and improving communications and marketing.
Robinson said he takes pride in the department. After the department responds to a call, residents have the option to fill out a Call for Assistance Customer Feedback survey. Robinson said that in his entire tenure at the department, he’s only read one survey that wasn’t positive, and the community’s support of the department makes him proud.
“The fact that the citizens of Cabot have a great team here that are well trained, they’re well-educated, they’re eager, and the folks that work here at our fire department aren’t just the type that go to work and go home,” he said. “These folks are very dedicated in what they do. They’re very loyal to the city and to the citizens of the city.”