In the morning heat of an early summer sun, a unified and dedicated group marched through downtown Columbia to remember a celebrated local firefighter and bring awareness to the illness that took the man who gave the city all he could.
James Howard Childres broke barriers and set an example for the community as the Columbia Fire Department’s first black captain. Along with serving as a leader within the department and bringing in a new generation of firefighters including Chief Ty Cobb, Childres brought the department into the digital age, digitizing much of the work and record keeping that had previously been done with pen and paper for the majority of the department’s 150-year history.
But in March of 2014, after years of battling fires, Childres lost his battle with ALS.
In honor of the late protector of Columbia and in an effort to bring awareness to the degenerative disease that took his life, friends, relatives and loved ones walked along West 10th Street and through Columbia Fire and Rescue’s Station No. 1 on Carmack Boulevard to raise awareness for ALS.