Dekalb County Fire Station 23 was opened in September of 1986. I was transferred from Station 20 as a Lieutenant to Station 23 upon its opening. Everyone assigned to the three shifts were excited to be there and proud of the new million dollar plus fire station. One thing that stuck out was a small retention pond out front that was holding water that looked out of place for such a beautiful fire station.

One day we were out driving, getting acquainted with our new territory, and we came down a street where there was a yard sale. There were at least 20 pink flamingos in the front yard. An idea quickly popped into my mind and I told my driver to pull over and stop. I got out of Engine 23 and went up to the lady that was having the yard sale and asked her how much she wanted for her pink flamingos and she quickly told me that they were not for sale. She told me they were her yard art. She asked what I wanted them for, and I told her that we were from the new fire station up the road and we were looking for something to bring awareness to the ugly retention pond in front of the fire station. To my surprise, she told me that if that was what we wanted them for, she would give us a couple for no charge. I thanked her and we headed back to the fire station with our gift. Once we got back, we placed the flamingos in the pond and they looked right at home.

After a couple of weeks we decided to paint the pink flamingos white and put some black spots on them and call them “Dalmingos”. They brought plenty of awareness. Neighbors and tourist stopped to take pictures, other fire stations would steal them, even an Atlanta TV Station sent a crew out and did a story on our beloved Dalmingos.