TULSA, Okla. — Retired Tulsa Fire Captains Lucious Patrick and Mickey Collins are similar men, from similar backgrounds. Both started with Tulsa Fire under similar circumstances.
“I knew some guys that were firemen. They just happened to mention one day that the fire department was hiring. So I went and applied,” Collins said.
“I was out there and wanted a decent job, and wanted one with a pension and that was one of the biggest things for me,” Patrick said.
Their commonalities started outside the fire house.
“These guys were teammates in high school. Then they got on the fire department, started studying, and became teammates again. Promoting to lieutenant and then captain,” Retired Captain Renaldo Woods said.
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Woods organizes the annual event for Black History Month; pushed back to March due to weather.
Organizers championed Collins and Patrick, the two men with much in common, for what makes them uncommon.
Collins was Tulsa's tenth black fire captain, Patrick the eleventh.
Patrick said he led his firefighters by example.
“I would never ask them to do anything that I would not do myself,” Patrick said.
Collins kept things positive, too.
“I just tried to stay positive with them. I kind of remembered my days as a rookie … nervous. I used to tell them, 'Everybody's gonna make mistakes, just try not to make the same mistake twice, and you do that, you’ll always grow and learn and get better at your job.'”
The men are two humble history makers.
“I actually didn’t really think too much about it until people started talking about it when I became a captain,” Patrick said. “That’s when I realized there was a little something special about that.”
“It was kind of something I lucked into, but I’m glad I did, because it was very rewarding,” Collins added.
Both have been retired for about ten years.
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