New Fire Chief at Clemson

Clemson University has a new fire chief. Rick Cramer succeeds retired Chief Bill Daniel. Cramer brings a quarter of a century of fire fighting experience with him. Prior to accepting the job as Clemson’s fire chief, Cramer was employed as the Bluffton Township Fire District’s Deputy Chief of Operations in Beaufort County.

Cramer began his firefighting career as a volunteer in October 1996 and later became a paid firefighter/paramedic with Bluffton Fire District in May 1997, a position he held until 2003 when he was named fire lieutenant. In 2008, he was promoted to battalion chief of training. In this role, he managed the training curriculum for more than 100 firefighters and 16 administrative staff. He also developed and implemented the department’s policies and procedures.

He assumed his most recent position as deputy chief of operations in January 2014. This role included management and oversight of all members of the operations division (127), with direct supervision of six battalion chiefs, training chief and an accreditation manager. In this position, he administered the largest portion of Bluffton’s $16 million budget and was heavily involved with building fire stations, purchasing new apparatuses and overseeing departmental hiring within the operations division. In addition, Cramer served as Bluffton’s medical director, where he was responsible for oversight and management of all EMTs and paramedics.

One of his crowning achievements came last October when the Fire District was accredited by the Center for Public Safety Excellence.

Cramer has several professional affiliations. He currently chairs the board for the South Carolina Fire Service Insurance Services and is a former chair of the South Carolina Firefighters Association Member Benefits Committee. He is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, Beaufort County Fire Chiefs Association and a 2014 graduate of the South Carolina Firefighters Association Leadership Institute.

Cramer earned an associate’s degree in fire science at Kiser University in Florida in 2009 and added a bachelor’s degree in fire science from Columbia Southern University in Alabama in 2015.