Sumter Today: Sumter Firefighters honored with banquet

On this installment of Sumter Today... The past two years have been tough ones for Sumter’s volunteer firefighters. Manpower lessened, hours increased, gatherings were frowned upon, and social distancing made training and educational events difficult to organize and execute. The county’s annual volunteer firefighter awards banquet was canceled twice since COVID-19, but this fall, Sumter Fire Department leaders didn’t want them to go unrecognized. They split their typical large banquet into three smaller events, and we stopped by their first one to see how it went.