Chief Cloud at her desk in the East Point Fire Department.
Fire Chief
Rosemary R.
Cloud
America’s Hero
20 | July 2019 | Real Hero Report
On January 30, 1978, a 911 dispatcher calls out a signal “W-10,”
downtown Atlanta. The structure was a historic venue, renowned
for being the location that premiered Margaret Mitchell’s Gone
with the Wind attended by movie legends Clark Gable, Vivien
Leigh and Olivia de Havilland in 1939. As the Loew’s burned that
rushed to battle the blaze below.
against time to save this famous landmark, and in that moment,
I heard something inside me say ‘You can do that. You can
help others,’ stated Rosemary R. Cloud, who eventually would
thought to myself ‘they’re really making a difference, and I would
welcome an opportunity to do the same one day.’”
That opportunity came two
years later when the Atlanta
Fire Department, as part of
a federal lawsuit, increased
its recruitment of African-
Rosemary Cloud being among
a group hired. Cloud says
while her desire to become
the day she witnessed the
personal examination that she
determined she was ready to
pursue her dream career.
“I had just gotten a divorce,
which threw me into certain
roles. I was cutting my own
grass, changing sparkplugs
on my lawnmower, and
performing other stereotypical jobs associated with men. So,
“I also considered the fact that everyone in my family was either
in, or had served in, a service position. Moreover, what I came to
believe and know is that helping others is in my family’s DNA,
and it is a core value in my family that I felt responsible
to continue.”
Although the Atlanta Fire Department boosted its number of
of recruit school to accommodate women in the class.
“We had to run a mile and a half every morning. We had to do
50 pushups, as men did. And if any of us did anything wrong,
we were made to run up a six-story tower,” recalled Cloud. “It
disciplined me to stay out there and hang tough. And in the end,
I was in the best shape I could have ever been in, and I knew
unequivocally, that I could go alongside anybody and put out
said there were still hurdles to overcome.
Loew’s Grand Theatre Fire on
January 30, 1978. (Photo credit:
Atlanta Journal & Constitution)