James “Jay” Barbee is not a big man. But at just 19 years old, he has taken on a big job as one of Putnam County’s newest firefighters upon graduating a few weeks ago from the Georgia Public Safety Training Center (GPSTC) in Forsyth.
“Training was very fun, but it was very different than what I thought it was going to be, more physically demanding than what I was expecting. I mean, I was expecting some physical work, of course, but being the size I am it really was very physically demanding,” Barbee freely admits.
“But it was also very fun and informational, and it was just put together really well. It really showed, you know, that I can go past limits a lot farther than what I thought I could.”
That’s the kind of experience and attitude that Putnam County Fire Chief Thomas “Tommy” McClain likes to hear. And the chief likes knowing that Barbee, the son of a Putnam County sheriff’s deputy, is a lifelong local.
“It means a lot to me. I like to get people that are interested in the community, that go into this line of work to take care of people in the community that they’re vested in,” McClain says. “And they’re somewhat familiar with the area. Or you hope anyway.”
Robert Huckaby, 22, who attended GPSTC (they pronounce it, “Jipstick”) alongside Barbee, also grew up most of his life in Eatonton and now works with Barbee at PCFD’s Station 10 on Hwy. 44 heading out of town. He said his wife’s uncle, Ronnie Crooms, a training officer with the Milledgeville Fire Department, helped him reach the decision to become a firefighter.
“He (Crooms) helped put me in touch with the right people to make things happen, but really, I just wanted to help make the community safer that my boy would grow up in,” Huckaby said of his toddler son. “And I thought I could do it a lot more directly from here (at the fire station).”
Though strangers before their shared training experience, Huckaby said he and Barbee made the trek back-and-forth to GPSTC several times together and got to know one another while sharing and comparing experiences.
And now, though the two young recruits are on separate shifts, Huckaby said it helps just knowing there’s someone at the station who’s going through the same life and work experiences, and facing the same, steep learning curve he encounters every day on the job.
“It is helpful not to be the only green guy here,” he says. “You know, you’ve got people coming in (to the station), but then they’ve got different experiences. I think the most recent before us was like two years ago, so there’s a pretty big gap between I just did it and here I am, and someone who’s already been on the job for a couple of years.”
Regardless, both new hires say their new workmates are very generous with their time and knowledge.
“They’re very good to work with, very good. They’ve all got so much information and everyone is willing to share and be very helpful,” Barbee said as he was preparing to do some hose training with a nearby veteran firefighter.
He said the biggest adjustment he’s had to make is coping with the 24-hours on, 48-hours-off, 24-hours-on, and so on schedule that all Putnam firefighters adhere to.
“It’s very different. You know, when you go home and sleep, that’s pretty much it, you sleep and you wake up the next morning,” Barbee explains.
“Here, you don’t know if you’re gonna wake up two, three o’clock in the morning, go back to work, and then come back here and try to go back to sleep again. I mean, you might go to sleep and get a few hours or maybe half an hour later you’re up again, so you’re always up on your toes. Like I said, it’s very different.”
Both Barbee and Huckaby say they enjoy the variety of the firefighter’s life, with both appreciating more than ever there’s a lot more to a firefighter’s role than just spraying water on fires.
“They teach you there’s so much more to it than that,” Huckaby says. “And heck, I’ve still got a lot more to learn still. Like I’m right out of the academy and just learned everything there, but I’m brand new here and I don’t know even half the stuff that the guys here now do.”