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Chief Shamond Hardin, The Valley's First Responder for November 2020

No matter what the job entails, the Triana Volunteer Fire Chief loves what he does, thanks to his crew and community.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Chief Shamond Hardin has always wanted to help people from a young age. He was partially inspired by his mom, who helped others as a nurse, and a special visit during childhood helped him choose his career path.

"I always loved helping people. I remember in third grade, I went to Lakewood Elementary School. The Huntsville Fire Department came out, and they were showing us their firetrucks, and I always wanted to do that."

Hardin has been with the Triana Volunteer Fire Department for ten years now, and during his time there, he's learned that being a firefighter is a group effort.

Credit: Shamond Hardin
Chief Hardin is always all smiles

"I would say joining the Triana Volunteer Fire Department, it's a great community of people, a great collective use of people as well. It's mainly just a good group of people getting together, going out there. It's close-based, and we love to have that many people together as one."

Working in a job filled with so many risks can make the rewards that much better - and he's got the stories to prove it.

"There was a car crash where a car flipped over, and I pulled a lady out of the car. Funny enough, two years later, she was running for a seat of council for Madison. She knocked on my door and says, 'Hey, I remember you! You pulled me out of my car a couple years ago!' That threw me back. I was so ecstatic because I liked to be there for her in her time of need."

He received a nice nomination for Valley's First Responder, but he got another nice one a few years back.

"Out of the blue, they say, 'Hey, we're gonna nominate you for fire chief,'" Hardin tells me with a laugh. "It blew me away. I said, 'Thank you.' After that, I started my journey as fire chief here."

If you think someone you know should be the next Valley's First Responder, click here.

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