Assistant Chief
Columbia Fire Department
Columbia, South Carolina
Chief Jamie Helms and his wife, Laurie, have been married for 31-years and reside in the Irmo, SC area. Nearby are their three adult children, Megan, Brad, and Bryan. They are members of Grace Point Presbyterian Church, where he served in church leadership for several years.
After graduating from Irmo High, he was in the process of pursuing a career in the military when circumstances led him to meet with an Assistant Chief of the Columbia Fire Department. At that meeting, Jamie was offered a position with the department and officially started work on February 1, 1988. He was one of the few, at that time, that were hired at 18 years-old. Over the last thirty-four years, he has risen through all of the ranks, within the department, to his current position of Assistant Fire Chief. During this time, Chief Helms has served in various leadership/officer positions with the last twelve as an Assistant Chief. In his position, he provides management oversight in the areas of Human Resources, Training, Hiring, Recruitment/Retention, Staffing, Payroll and Volunteer Services. In addition to all of this, he currently serves as the third Vice President of the South Carolina Firefighters Association (SCSFA). He was elected on the platform of creating a community in which every member feels involved and included. He strives to see and hear from fire departments across the state in order to help make the South Carolina Fire Service an ideal and safe place to work. Chief Helms has a strong commitment to leadership and service of others, having served in many leadership capacities both professional and personal. He is a graduate of the Midlands Technical College Advanced Leadership, Brave Fire Leader Academy, and the SCSFA Leadership Institute (2019). This state and this career has created a life that he loves. He strives to continue to create a positive fire service culture of professional service for all those currently serving and those to come.
Throughout his career with the department, he has shown excellent performance, leadership, coaching and mentoring in all ranks from Firefighter to Assistant Chief. His areas of responsibilities have given him a wide-range of experiences. From the development of programs, the management of emergency operations on multiple levels (serving as the Incident Commander of the 2015 Joaquin Flood, along with Hurricanes Matthew and Florence), management of personnel and multiple work sections, personnel training, personnel development, management of the department’s disciplinary action program, implementation and evaluation of departmental programs, management of work sections goals and objectives, hiring of all ranks and evaluation of new recruit firefighters, management of the promotional system for all ranks, provided continuous interaction with internal/external agencies, boards and organizations, management of the multiple divisions (code enforcement, public education, staffing, logistics, training, professional service/HR, volunteer services and operations). His experience also has afforded him the opportunity in assisting with the development and management of the department’s 44 million-dollar budget and managing the Operations Division of the City of Columbia’s EOC. Not only has he managed the promotional processes, but Chief Helms also managed the development of the Columbia-Richland Fire Department Rank Academy and Multi-Unit Drill training programs. Education programs remains top priority in maintaining a safe environment for all of those that serve our communities, and is of the utmost importance. Chief Helms assisted with the development and implementation of the City/County Unified Fire Contract in 2012. This contract lead to the unification of the Columbia–Richland Fire Department. Chief Helms holds close the department’s core values of Community, Integrity and Service, as the guiding principles of his leadership.
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Friday, August 26, 2022
3:15 PM – 4:45 PM