CHARLOTTESVILLE — For the past six years, Darrell Bowman, or as his fellow firefighters call him, D.B., has been the Charlottesville Volunteer Fire Department Chief. However, with the end of the current year, he’s informed the department he’ll be stepping down.
Bowman will be replaced by Wilkinson Volunteer Fire Department Captain and Public Information Officer John Collins. The changing of the guard officially goes into effect January 1.
While Bowman is stepping down, he noted he will remain a volunteer firefighter in Charlottesville but will no longer be the head of the department, the one making the key decisions.
“It’s just time for a change,” Bowman said. “I’m getting to the age where I feel like it’s time to turn things over to someone else.”
Bowman, who is now in his 70s, said he’s been a volunteer firefighter for nearly 50 years and has seen many changes in fire coverage from the time he started until now. However, the one thing that never changed through those many decades was Bowman’s commitment to helping people in need.
“I’ve been with Charlottesville as a volunteer firefighter for some 47 years now, and I was an assistant chief for about 30 years before I took over as chief six years ago,” he said.
That length of time is one of the reasons he wants to stay on the department and help as a volunteer for as long as he can, because being a firefighter is just in his system and is something he doesn’t want to give up.
When asked why he never became a full-time, career firefighter, Bowman said his profession was in the iron field where he made a good living.
Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t dedicate his life to the fire service, which he has done.
“I never thought about it that way too much,” Bowman said. “I think being a volunteer firefighter was just something I wanted to do, and it has just worked out that I’ve been able to do it all these years.”
Bowman is originally from Greenfield. He went to Hancock Central High School in Maxwell before moving to the Charlottesville area.
As for Collins, he knows he’s got some big shoes to fill. He noted Bowman has done a “great job” as fire chief the past six years, helping get the department much needed gear and trucks. Bowman was in fact on his way to St. Louis early last week to pick up a new tanker truck and bring it back to Charlottesville. It was one of his last acts as the fire chief.
“D.B. was only the chief for six years, but in those six years he did a great job,” Collins said. “We’ve gotten new tech, a new rescue truck and a new engine thanks to the chief.”
Collins, 51, is a bit of a younger version of Bowman. They are both men who have dedicated their spare time to helping others and being part of volunteer fire departments in the eastern part of the county.
“I’ve been doing this, being a volunteer, since I can remember. I think it was 29 years in October, and I don’t plan on leaving any time soon,” Collins said.
Collins, who lives in Wilkinson, is an Eastern Hancock High School graduate who is from the Wilkinson area and, like Bowman, enjoys the volunteer work and has done just about every job in the fire service.
“I’ve been involved in the fire service for decades now and this (fire chief) is the one position I have never held, so I am looking forward to it,” Collins said.
Bowman said Collins should do a good job in filling his shoes because he’s got some good experience and cares about helping others, the sole reason behind being a volunteer fire department firefighter.
“I’m just thankful we had a guy around here who wanted to step up and who can do the job,” Bowman said. “That will make a world of difference to the people living in this community.”
