Inside Daniel Island Station 18

On Daniel Island, Station 18 is more than a place firefighters respond from when an emergency call comes in. It is part of a growing community, a familiar presence at local events, and a place where residents regularly stop by to say hello, bring food, or introduce their children to the firefighters and fire trucks.  

Station 18 Battalion Chief Kyle Weiss has been in the fire service for more than 17 years and has worked at several fire stations throughout the Charleston area. He says there is something different about serving Daniel Island. 

“It’s kind of part of the fabric of the community,” Weiss said. 

Residents regularly invite the station to participate in public events and stop by with food and other gifts to the firehouse on Seven Farms Drive. Firefighters return the invitation, welcoming children into the station on their birthdays to see the trucks and learn about fire safety. 

“When you're helping them out, you feel like you're helping out your neighbors,” Weiss said. “You're not just doing a job. You feel like you're helping someone out that you kind of know.” 

For many residents, an encounter with firefighters comes on one of the worst days of their lives. But at Station 18, the crew also gets to know the people they serve through birthdays, community events, and everyday interactions. 

“While of course we do see them on their worst day, we’re here every day,” Weiss said. 

A CHANGING COMMUNITY 

Serving Daniel Island also means keeping up with a community that continues to grow. 

New neighborhoods, businesses, and buildings bring different challenges for firefighters, from marine and waterborne emergencies to residential and commercial structure fires. 

Homes built close together can create a risk of wind-driven fires spreading from one structure to another. High-density developments, including apartment complexes and retirement communities, can present challenges when large numbers of people need to be evacuated. 

“Whether it's in Daniel Island itself or the Cainhoy area off Clements Ferry, there's always something new being built,” Weiss said. “There's also different newer styles of engineering that come along with that, so those are all the different hazards that we have to keep an eye on.” 

That means firefighters have to know more than the streets they travel. They have to understand how the community is being built and how new development can change the emergencies they may face. 

COURAGE, CHARACTER COUNTS 

For Weiss, the most important part of a fire station is not the equipment or trucks, but the people working inside it. 

Courage is part of being a firefighter, he says, but character matters just as much. 

“You can't have courage without danger, right? You’ve got to have fear and danger in order to be courageous,” Weiss said. “So it's part of the job, of course, but it's really the character that is 90% of the job.” 

That character, he says, means being patient and kind, particularly when responding to calls that may feel routine to a firefighter but are anything but routine for the person who called 911. 

“You might have signed up because you want to fight fire and you want to be a hero, but you're going to be helping the little lady off the floor at 2 a.m.,” Weiss said. “It might be your 10th call, but for them it's the first time they've ever called 911.” 

The job also means long shifts away from family and missing moments at home. Weiss said firefighters still have to arrive at each call ready to help the person on the other end. 

That sense of purpose is what drew Weiss to firefighting. Before entering the fire service, he worked in real estate. 

“It gave me purpose. I felt like I had meaning,” he said. “I fell in love with firefighting and loved the career.” 

REMEMBERING 9/11 

That sense of purpose takes on additional meaning as the country marks 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

For Weiss, the 343 firefighters who died responding to the attacks remain an important part of the fire service’s history. 

“It's about the courage to run towards people in need, even when people are running away,” Weiss said. “It's about embracing American values, standing up for those things rather than cowering in fear and keeping the memories of all those people who were victims on that day, and the responders who acted bravely.” 

Weiss was not yet a firefighter on Sept. 11. He was a high school senior and captain of his school’s football team. 

He remembers watching the attacks unfold on a television rolled into the room on a library cart. School activities and sports were canceled as students tried to understand what was happening. 

“I was young. I couldn't fully grasp what was happening,” Weiss said. 

That night, he invited his football teammates to his backyard to practice if they wanted to join him. Most of the team showed up. 

The practice was light. Looking back, Weiss says it was not really about football. 

“In hindsight, it was about us all being together,” he said. “We all were trying to figure out what was going on and to feel like we had some control over a situation that made everyone feel like we lost control.” 

The gathering gave the teammates a sense of normalcy on a day when little felt normal. 

“That was my 9/11 experience – just not allowing fear to decide what we're gonna do next,” Weiss said. 

Twenty-five years later, an entire generation has grown up without its own memories of that day. Weiss believes that makes continuing to talk about Sept. 11 and creating opportunities to commemorate it increasingly important. 

“Memory doesn't survive automatically,” he said. “You've got to carry it forward.” 

One way Daniel Island does that is through the annual 9/11 Heroes Run. Weiss says events that return year after year help build traditions that can continue even as firsthand memories of the attacks become less common. 

For the firefighters at Station 18, service continues between those commemorations, through emergency calls, and the ordinary interactions they have with their neighbors. 

Weiss said the crew appreciates the support Daniel Island residents show them, especially during the 24- and 48-hour shifts that keep firefighters away from their own families. 

“The support that they do give us is appreciated,” Weiss said. “The kindness that the community has shown us is really appreciated. Know that we're happy to serve out here.”