Local man deals with fires, dearly departed

When Sam Brockington isn’t taking care of the dearly departed, he’s riding herd on the South Lynches Fire Department as its chief.

Brockington is the president of Brockington Funeral Home in Lake City. His father, Keels, 83, started the business in 1951.

And Keels introduced Sam to firefighting when he was a member of the Kingstree Fire Department and Sam was 3.

Keels was the charter president in 1955 of the Lake City Rural Fire Department. It morphed into South Lynches, a special fire district covering lower Florence and upper Williamsburg counties with six stations and 130 volunteers.

Keels still takes care of business at the funeral home.

“Daddy comes around every day, gives us our orders and checks things out,” said Sam, whose son, Aaron, also is affiliated with the funeral home. “Daddy attends most visitations and funerals, too.”

And Keels isn’t one to miss a fire, either. He frequently leans on Sam to let him answer calls with him.

There was a time when Sam thought he might not be in the funeral business or chief of a fire department. He headed off to The Citadel in 1971 with his best friend, Henry Johnson, of W. Lee Flowers Co. (IGA) fame. Sam had serious intentions of making the military a career.

But the Vietnam war ended, causing a surplus of officers.

“I decided I needed to get married and be a fireman,” Sam said. “So the easiest thing to do was to come back to Lake City and work for Daddy.”

But what does it take to succeed in the funeral business?

“You have to be a compassionate, empathetic person who can handle tough situations,” Sam said. “You have to help people transfer from life with the loved one to life without the loved one. You have to show them that they can make it without the loved one in a very short period of time.

“The purpose of the funeral home is to give the family a place to gather, mourn and receive friends. We want the family to have a place where they will be surrounded by family and loved ones.”

Although funeral service is his profession and he loves it, Sam said fire service is his passion.

“Daddy brought me up to love service to the community and to help others in time of need,” he said. “The people I’m going to help — both in the funeral home and the fire service — are having their worst day. I like to see myself as a crisis manager who is able to turn chaos into some kind of order.”

But what happens if a fire occurs while Sam is comforting families at the funeral home?

“When Daddy was the lead dog, I would sneak off and go to fires,” he said. “But since I’ve taken over, we’ve developed a well-trained, well-disciplined and well-organized fire department to where I’ve empowered the officers and leaders to take charge and I don’t feel my presence is needed at every single fire.”

Although he enjoys hunting and his office is full of hunting and fire mementoes, Sam said his top priority is his family. He and Nancy, his wife of 33 years, have five children. They are, in addition to Aaron, Bess, Annalise, Edward and Eleanor.

“It’s been a tremendous joy to Nancy and me to take care of our children and watch them grow up,” Sam said.