Members of the Linn Volunteer Fire Department get a call in the middle of the night.
It’s a neighboring rural fire department, requesting full manpower.
Or in the case of Linn’s bunch, man and womanpower.
Among those who arrive in their turnout gear, ready to help supply backup and water is Petey Mixon.
She is one of two female volunteers on the force, Michelle Floyd the other.
A retired educator, Mixon was one of the first to get in line when the small, close-knit community first began exploring the possibility of starting a fire department.
“They had community meetings at the Methodist Church and at the Baptist Church,” Mixon said. “They said for $25, you can become a supporter of the fire department. I found out later that was actually buying into the fire department. So, I went down to the academy and went through the process, graduated and got my certificate.”
Growing up in rural Sunflower County, Mixon said she had few connections to firefighting, other than her parents attending the annual fireman’s ball in Greenville each year.
Back then, Linn did not have the group of volunteers it has today.
Now, the department boasts one of the nicest fire trucks in the county, to go along with a 5,000-gallon tanker.
Linn’s first fire truck, Mixon said, was donated by a department in South Carolina.
“It was stripped of everything,” Mixon said. “We didn’t have any hoses or anything.”
Mixon said the department was able to grow and get more supplies, thanks to several grants that were facilitated by the late Edgar Donahoe, who served on the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors for many years.
The tanker was purchased for $100 from Camp Shelby, she said.
“It was camouflage, so we had to paint it red,” Mixon said.
Mixon is a native of the Linn community, but after graduating from college, she was called to go teach in Homestead, Fla., a city in the Florida Keys.
She spent decades teaching at the high school level and at a maximum security prison, where she helped many hardened criminals graduate from high school.
While many move to Florida after retirement, Mixon did the opposite. She moved from the Keys back to her home community, and that is where she discovered her second calling in life.
“For a long time, I was the only female in the fire department,” Mixon said. “Once I get in my turnouts, you don’t know if I’m man or woman.”
Mixon said that she was determined to graduate from the fire academy. It was one of the toughest things she ever did, but she finished.
“Everyone finished about 1 o’clock,” Mixon said. “I came dragging up that hill about 3:30, but I had done everything else. I had a female partner, but she passed out about two-thirds of the way through it…I was absolutely beat to a pulp.”
During training, Mixon said she learned a lot about the teamwork aspect of firefighting.
At one point, she had to crawl through a smoke-filled building, and she had to keep her hand latched to the boot of her partner. During the exercise, she needed to adjust her helmet.
When she let go of the boot, her partner went on without her, and she failed that segment.
Later, she was told that if she needed to let go, to clamp her knees to that boot but to never let go for any reason.
“You learn your best lessons when you are defeated the greatest,” Mixon said.
Then came time for Mixon’s first call as a firefighter.
“Interesting,” Mixon said. “The guys wouldn’t let me go inside. Fortnuately not, because there was a body inside. I was very good at laying hoses, and I was very good with grassfires and things like that, but they really didn’t let me go inside the burning building.”
Mixon said she is happy with her roles at the fire scenes.
“I showed up on time, and I did everything like everybody else, and I had my turnouts on,” she said. “Wherever they said go, I went. Whatever they said do, I did it.”
Each month, the Linn volunteers meet at Roundaway Baptist Church, and everyone in the group is treated equally, Mixon said.
“We call it a brotherhood,” she said. “We don’t worry about that gender thing. I’m not offended by the fact that it’s called a brotherhood, even though I’m not a brother.”
The next time there is a fire in the Linn community, or in the surrounding area, Petey Mixon just might be there, rolling hoses and providing support to her brothers and sisters in uniform, and that should give everyone a reason to feel better about the situation.
