Name: Ralph Culbreth
Rank: Captain
Agency: Kinston Department of Public Safety
Joined: 1987
Promoted: 1992
Ralph Culbreth was looking at a future in dentistry.
Twenty-six years as a firefighter — 21 of those years as captain — wasn’t figuring in the mix.
“I was actually supposed to go to Carolina, to go to pre-dentistry school, and my father got laid off, and I was unable to go, financially,” Culbreth said. “I went to community college, and sort of messed off there for a year or two, and came here.”
The Duplin County native had been a volunteer firefighter, and when a position opened up in Kinston in 1987 to do the job full-time, he went for it. In 1992, Culbreth received a promotion to captain.
During his service, he’s seen the good and bad that come with the job.
“I found two deceased children in a house that were burned up pretty good,” Culbreth said. “I had a small child myself at the same time, and that was very traumatic.”
Recently, the KDPS and Lenoir County EMS have partnered on calls, and they were able to participate in bringing a woman back from death.
“A few weeks ago we actually assisted in bringing a lady back to life. She was deceased when we got there, when EMS got there — they shocked her three times and got her back, sent her to Greenville, and now she’s out of the hospital,” Culbreth said.
The EMS calls are a change from what had been the norm, but Culbreth said new training and new procedures are part of the job. He said best practices continue to be improved, with the emphasis in recent years of equipment and procedure to better protect the life and health of the firefighter, a group of people he said that tend to think of helping the victim first and themselves second.
And while being able to save people from dangerous circumstances leaves you with a good feeling, Culbreth said it’s all part of the job.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.