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THE HOTTEST JOB ON THE GULF
75 YEARS OF RTFC In the pages of The Hottest Job on the Gulf—75
THE HOTTEST JOB ON THE GULF
Years of RTFC, you’ll read how the company grew,
“in-plants”—at facilities up and down Refinery Row. Along the road, from recruit to experienced industrial firefighter, are the multiple required certifications, agility tests, strength training, book tests, and practice.
For the dedicated men and women of RTFC, what is forged through this discipline is not only one of the most highly skilled firefighting companies in the world, but a sense of family and bonds that are unbreakable—what Chief Paul Swetish describes as “a feeling of family . . . purpose and mission.”
THE HOTTEST JOB ON THE GULF 75 YEARS OF RTFC
training and then placing firefighters—referred to as
The story of the firefighters who have the “hottest job on the Gulf” has its genesis in the deadliest industrial
75 YEARS OF RTFC
accident in U.S. history—the horrifying Texas City disaster on April 16, 1947, sparked by an explosion on the S.S. Grandcamp that was docked in the city’s port. Fueled by the ship’s cargo of ammunition and 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the fire threw a mushroom cloud two thousand feet into the air and killed all but one member of the local volunteer fire department and over five hundred additional citizens.
Within three months, what began to emerge from tragedy was the formation of today’s Refinery Terminal Fire Company (RTFC). Celebrating its seventy-fifth year in 2023, RTFC has developed the national model for preventing and fighting industrial fires.
The training is virtually nonstop, actions committed to muscle memory by the firefighters. The voluminous knowledge of firefighting learned by every member is matched by the state-of-the-art equipment, including multimillion-dollar custom-design trucks that can throw water over four hundred feet, necessary to go into battle with.
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