For some, the calling to serve comes from a deep desire to help others.
For others, the call runs in their bloodline. For Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Lieutenant Pam Ramsdell, it’s both.
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“I’ve always … wanted to help other people,” Ramsdell said. “The biggest reason was family. I grew up around the department.”
Action News Jax Anchor Chandler Morgan sat down with Ramsdell and her parents at “the kitchen table” inside Station 61.
The kitchen table is a place where many fire station meals are shared and memories are made. A fitting setting, as Pam recalled her vibrant memories visiting her father during his service with JFRD.
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“Going and visiting Dad at the fire station later on in his career when he was a safety officer, actually getting to ride in the car with him when he would go on calls,” she said.
Her father’s service with JFRD inspired Ramsdell to pursue a career of her own.
“After high school, I sat down with him and talked about wanting to do the job, and his biggest thing was he wanted me to have more education first,” Ramsdell said.
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While attending nursing school, she had the opportunity to volunteer.
“He let me do some volunteer hours riding in rescue, and that’s where I got hooked,” she said.
Ramsdell has now spent more than 20 years with JFRD, with a decorated and impactful career.
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She’s known in the firehouse lovingly as “mom.”
“It’s because I’m older than everyone else here,” Ramsdell jokingly says.
But after speaking with her fellow firefighters, it’s clear that Ramsdell’s care for others is a clear passion.
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In 2016, she was named Firefighter of the Year, an award for a career that JFRD Chief Keith Powers describes as rich in service.
“She decided that she was going to make her own way, make her own path, but that she was going to make a difference within JFRD,” Powers said.
Ramsdell also served as the commander for JFRD’s Honor Guard, a specially trained group responsible for carrying out some of the most emotional ceremonies in the job, including funerals for fallen firefighters.
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“My first honor guard … the fallen firefighter memorial in 2006. They had found out … that I could play trumpet. And so they asked me to play taps at the memorial,” Ramsdell said.
The Commander at that time embraced Ramsdell, encouraging her to join Honor Guard.
“The honor guard, we do not just do color guard details at graduations and promotional ceremonies and things like that. We also do all of the funerals for retirees that have since retired from this department. High-profile events, the Mayor, Retired chiefs. We also do all the active duty and line of duty does for the city. And we will also assist with other counties that are close by if they need assistance,” Ramsdell said.
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For Ramsdell, that means connecting with families during their most emotional moments.
“Whatever we can do to not only help the immediate family, the fire station family, and then the fire department as a whole to honor that person. That’s what the commander does,” Ramsdell said.
Ramsdell is a fifth-generation firefighter in JFRD. Ramsdell’s grandfather was James Dowling Jr. He was the first Chief of Rescue and credited with starting the first fire-based rescue service in the country.
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“Her Great-granddaddy was on the job. She had a great-great-great uncle on the job. I mean, it’s a lot of generations,” Powers said.
“Knowing that back when he first started it, there were people from all over the world coming to Jacksonville to mimic what he had created. I think it’s huge,” Ramsdell said.
“Before I became chief, if a son or a daughter wanted to follow in their parent’s footsteps into JFRD, it was called nepotism. And I said, ‘That’s crazy.’ What an honor for us as a department and for this community, and the benefit that this community receives, that a person wants to follow into the same profession that their parents or grandparents or even great-grandparents before them have been in,” Powers said.
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He added, “It’s just an amazing thing for us as a department and as a community. We should be celebrating that.”
As a female leader in the department, Ramsdell acknowledged the challenges but also the opportunities.
“It’s not going to be handed to you. You have to fight for everything that you are trying to get. But it’s no different than anybody else in this field,” she said. “I always said when I got hired that I wanted to pave my own way. I didn’t want to ride the coattails of my family, and I feel like I’ve done that. And to be an inspiration to the younger generations of little girls, it makes me feel good to know that I can do that,” she said.
PHOTOS: Fifth-generation Jacksonville firefighter looks back on her decades of service
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