Local company gifts fire department a generous donation

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)-  Columbus firemen will now have somewhere new to hang-up their uniform.

On Thursday, the Columbus Fire and Rescue Department received 70 wardrobe cabinets and 70 footlockers.

Johnston-Tombigbee Furniture Manufacturing Company donated the storage space.

The company said it was notified about the department’s need, so they sent their trucks over to drop off the goods.

“It is extremely beneficial,” said Columbus Fire and Rescue Captain Marco Rodriguez. “When we come in for 24 hours shifts or more, we have a place to store our personal items and keep our uniforms nice and tidy, whether it be hanging up on a hanger or our class A uniforms or dress uniforms, or even our day-to-day uniforms that we have. It’ll be a little more organized.”

“I’m a retired law-enforcement, I’m a retired first responder,” said Jerry Brauer, Director of Safety and Security at Johnston-Tombigbee Furniture Manufacturing Company. “The brotherhood and sisterhood that we had with first responders when I was in a uniform was everything. You never knew what was going to happen and when we would need one another, so to be able to help first responders in a different career just makes me thrilled.”

The storage units will be distributed to all of the city’s fire stations.