Billy Harrell

Carter County EMA Director Billy Harrell stands outside of his center of operations, recently acquired a few months ago.

Carter County’s Billy Harrell serves community as EMA director

Story & Photos by Nic Miller

When an emergency event happens in Carter County, fire, EMS, and law enforcement officers are the first ones on the scene. However, when crisis arises, one member of the response team steps up to lead: Billy After graduating college, Harrell worked with the Carter County Sheriff’s Office and then alongside side former EMA Director Gary Smith as deputy for seven years. Smith began training Harrell. “Over a year before he retired, he Harrell.

As director of the Elizabethton/Carter County Emergency Management Agency, Harrell plans and leads responses to events such as natural disasters or other emergencies within the county.

Harrell started his career in emergency management as a paramedic. “I started off as an EMT, and went to EMT school back in the ‘90’s where afterwards I was accepted into paramedic school and eventually worked as a paramedic for 15 years.”

Harrell wanted to further his education in hopes of a job in a similar field. “I decided to go back to college at ETSU for a bachelor’s degree, where I received that degree in criminology with a minor in Emergency Management.” had began letting me work with the budget and place orders which helped me be better prepared if I was to get the job as director,” Harrell said. When Smith retired in May, Harrell took over the agency in his role as deputy director and was officially named director in June. Because Harrell has been involved with the agency for so long, he has been called to many incidents during his tenure, including the Barnett’s Guns fire in 2018. “We were up there on scene for almost 10 hours that day, and because it happened in January it was very cold and the road was freezing because of water from the fire trucks,” Harrell said. “We had every volunteer fire department on scene for that event, as well as some

26

Carter County Emergency Management Agency Director Billy Harrell is constantly checking the radar in case of inclement weather. Director Billy Harrell stands outside of his Elizabethton office in front of one of the Emergency Management Agency vehicles.

guys from the Elizabethton Fire Department trying to extinguish things.”

Harrell also was on hand in 2019 for the plane crash involving Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at Elizabethton Municipal Airport.

“We had just about every agency around helping with that accident, and being able to see all of these groups respond quickly and work together very efficiently is something that I will remember about that day,” Harrell said.

Teamwork makes the dream work as the saying goes, and Harrell believes that same thing, saying, “being in a place like Elizabethton and Carter County and doing this job is so special because you know and have a personal connection with everyone you are working alongside with.”

Carter County Emergency Management Agency Director Billy Harrell reviews a document while sitting in his office located in Elizabethton.