Outside of battling blazes or rocking the signature firefighter equipment, Firefighter Valiant Lyte is busy contributing to the Statesboro Fire Department in another way entirely: he's become the creative force behind the team, inspiring a new sense of team morale as he brings each crew's personality and mission to life with every custom patch he creates.
After Lyte's plan to join the military didn't work out, he received some encouragement from a friend to join the fire department, which resulted in a decision that Lyte hasn't regretted since; at just 21-years-old, Lyte officially became a member of the Statesboro Fire Department.
Now 25, this job has become his new passion while art remained a quiet constant in the background—something he'd been doing before receiving this position and an element that soon found it's way into his work life as well.
He started taking his passion for art seriously in 2019, and after joining the fire department, his fellow firefighters requested that he create them a custom badge, something that they lacked compared to other departments. Seeing that nothing bad could come of trying, Lyte took on this task about two years ago, resulting in a design that perfectly embodied the grit of the fire department and their dedication to the cause: a bulldog and its hefty cigar, a classic symbol for those in the fire service.
The process of creating this patch was no easy feat—it involved a lot of trial and error that eventually transformed into what it is now.
"I taught myself," said Lyte. "The dog is a reference—everything I colored, added the drool, the helmet—all drawn by me."
Just a couple of days after finishing the final product, the new patch was already on one of the engines—a surprise to Lyte, who hadn't been told exactly when it would go up. The reality that his design—a product of his passion and hard-work—finally began to set in, something Lyte had previously doubted would actually be used.
While Lyte remains soft-spoken of his pride, his team boasts about the design now plastered on the side of one of the trucks, working closely with Lyte to help determine the next designs for the other engines. The team's pride has gone so far as ignite a new tradition where a member of the team is highlighted to showcase not only their contributions to the team, but also to focus on the individuals themselves.
"Each individual has different things that they bring to the table other than the firefighting aspect," said Deputy Fire Chief Bobby Duggar. "We were trying to wait for the right person to kick this thing off."