AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Kylor Williams, a Palo Duro High School graduate, became a certified firefighter in 2014, making history as one of Amarillo’s few Black firefighters since 1887.
“I grew up on the north side, born and raised over there,” said Williams, who graduated from Palo Duro High School. “I wanted to be a lawyer. Growing up, I realized that was too much school, and I didn’t want to do that.”That’s when he met his best friend, and it would change the course of his life.“Mason Madrid. His grandpa was a firefighter here for 32 years, and so we met each other and started talking to his grandpa, and his grandpa’s like, ‘man, y’all should do this, you’ll love it,’” he said.Williams graduated from the fire academy right out of high school and became a certified firefighter in 2014 at the age of 21. He became one of only a few Black firefighters to serve in Amarillo since the city’s founding in 1887.
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He told MyHighPlains.com that his story is all about being a living example of turning pain into purpose.“My dad was killed when I was two years old. So I was raised by a single mother. I met my stepdad actually came in my life at in sixth grade. I call him my dad, great blessing to me, great guy. But being raised by that on the north side in a single family home, you don’t see people like that making out that much,” Williams explained.As one of only a few minority firefighters to ever work at AFD, Williams has a unique story in an extraordinary job. But he told us his favorite part is what happens outside the firehouse.“Giving back, the kids. Youth is a passion for me. Youth is huge. I have three boys. I love being in the community, love giving back. It’s all honestly the kids. When you see just a random driving by, you see a kid, you know, giving you the horn or or waving at you, that’s the blessing,” he said proudly.
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Another cool part of the job, the tools and toys they get to use.“All the kids like to see is the jaws of life. We have, we call it a spreaders. We have some cutters, and then we actually have a ram. Then we have cutters, basically a pair of scissors. You think of it as scissors. That thing will cut that like a piece of paper. It’ll cut it quick. If we have a wreck where we have to cut somebody out, we can have that roof removed, and probably a couple minutes, by about two minutes,” he said.
Williams went on to explain that 80% of calls into AFD are medical calls, so firefighters are prepared to respond to any call day or night, rain, sleet or snow.All of it to help keep people like you and me safe…