Women’s History Month Spotlight: April Conyers

March 20, 2024

Clarendon County Fire-Rescue Public Education & Information Officer April Conyers found more than a career when she joined the fire service – she found family. Every story she tells about her decade of service is riddled with respect for the job and love for her people.

“I was always taught that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life,” April said. Prior to joining the fire service, she worked third shift as an auditor because it was convenient as a single mother of two. But she wanted something more out of life and more for her kids.

“For my kids, I feel like it put me in a better position to be there for them even though I did work on shift,” she tells.

April’s first few years on the job were spent under Fire Chief Francis Richbourg, a fire service legend with a reputation for being an excellent leader. She’s the first and currently only woman to serve as President of the Association.

Chief Richbourg and April had – and still have – a special relationship.

“I loved her,” April said of Chief Richbourg.

Chief Richbourg lives at the end of a long dirt road; it was common for her to come by the station with a dirty truck, so April and her crew took it upon themselves to wash her truck when she came by. It wasn’t unusual for Chief Richbourg to be needed in another part of the county at the drop of a hat, driving off before they were done washing the truck.

“I had a lot of fun with her… she was so small but so fierce,” April continued, “I would watch her sometimes and think ‘She’s outworking these men’ and the harder she worked, the harder I wanted to work.”

Modeling her work ethic after Chief Richbourg paid off. In 2019, April won Firefighter of the Year and was promoted to Lieutenant. In 2020, Clarendon County Fire became Clarendon County Fire-Rescue. The promotion and merge with EMS sparked something in April.

“If I have people coming to work under me, I can’t expect them to have more than I have,” she said sincerely, “So I went ahead and got my EMT certification.”

April’s tenacity and ambition is intrinsic; every time life has attempted to knock her down, she gets back up.

When April was going through recruit school in 2014, her mom was battling cancer. Her mom’s condition continued to worsen and in early fall, she moved in with April.

“She moved in with me in September maybe, and on November 5 she passed away,” April continues, “December 2 I graduated from recruit class.”

It was no easy feat providing care for her ailing mother, raising two kids, working a third shift job, and going through recruit school. State Fire Marshal Chief Jonathan Jones was lead of the Clarendon County Fire Training Division back then and worked with April to make sure she saw recruit school through ‘til the end.

“He said, ‘You’ve come too far to quit,’” she said. Chief Jones saw something in her that she probably didn’t see in herself at the time.

“Every morning we would come in, we would train, and train, and train,” April said about her first months on the job.

“Jonathan would always yell at me, ‘Are you tired?’ and I would yell back, ‘No, I’m not tired!’” she paused, “I was, but he would never know.”

“Now, after all this time, I’ve done a lot of growing and he really pushed me because I feel like he knew I had more in me than what I was giving him,” April said. Later during her first year on the job, April would be named Rookie of the Year.

In 2021, April’s world was turned upside down again, another painful, pivotal moment in her life. She had to say her final goodbyes to her beloved dad, a wound that is still fresh and gives her pause.

“I almost quit,” she says, accompanied by a long silence. Her grief was all-consuming, but she knew she still had a family. Her former captain, Michael Johnson, was now fire chief and knew firsthand the relationship April had with her dad. Support showed up time and time again.

“Every day, we had fire trucks, ambulances, police cars… every day, somebody was there,” April details the days after her dad’s death.

April was asked after the funeral if her dad was a member of the fire service.

“I said no, ‘These are my people,’” she says, remembering the sea of uniforms and how her entire shift, the entire command staff, and people who didn’t even work at the department anymore attended the funeral.

April’s journey in the fire service is just getting started. She loves what she does, who she does it with, and is eager to see what opportunities the future holds for her.

She puts it best: “Standby, I’m still loading.”