Hundreds of Madison-area community members will join the Sable Flames, an organization of the Madison Fire Department’s African-American firefighters, as they raise money for scholarships to help individuals fulfill their educational dreams and goals at the annual Second Alarm Scholarship Benefit on Saturday, April. 18, 8 p.m. at The Tributary Hub on Madison’s East Side.
Beyond raising funds for the Jones-Robinson Scholarship, this annual event is an evening of dancing, fun, and networking. 
“We have a band coming in from Milwaukee and a DJ coming in from Rockford. It’s going to be a fun night,” says organizer Robert Hansbro, the longest-serving lieutenant in MPD history who retired in 2022, a few months short of 43 years on the force. “This is our signature event.”
The Sable Flames’ mission is to provide support, knowledge and leadership to members of its organization as well as to all members of the fire service. The Sables emphasize the importance of hiring, recruiting, promoting, and retaining African Americans and other persons of color.
“At the Second Alarm Scholarship Benefit, we will have a few people who will say a few words about raising up the stakes in the community, because the way things are working in the country today, trickle-down [economics], obviously, is not working,” Hanbsbro says. “So the way I view it is it’s up to the people to start working from the bottom, to get what they need, to keep everything going the way they want.”
At the Second Alarm Scholarship Benefit, community members will talk about a variety of occupations.
“Typically, when we first started it out, we were using this opportunity for people who wanted to get on the fire department, and we would give them scholarships to get an education that would enhance their ability to get on the job,” Hansbro remembers. “Well, obviously, everybody can’t get on the fire department. And so I talked to some other people who agreed to say a few words about getting into careers associated with what they do.
“So the gentleman who set us up with the venue agreed to talk about plumbing because we don’t have a lot of people of color in the plumbing industry,” Hansbro continues. “We will have a general manager of a hotel who will be talking about careers in hospitality. And we’re looking to have Foster Funeral Homes talk about the opportunities in their industry, too.”
The 28th annual Second Alarm Scholarship Benefit will raise funds for the Jones-Robinson Scholarship, which was created to honor the five children who perished in the Sommerset Circle fire of 1990 in Madison. The children, who were African American, came from a low-income, single-parent household. Following this tragedy, The Sable Flames, Inc. created a scholarship fund in the children’s honor.
Hansbro wasn’t working that night, but his Fire Station #6 was very close to the fire.
Sable Flames’ founding members included (Top) Bob Hansbro, Hubert McKenzie,
Kermit Mosley; (Bottom) Bob Wallace and Cleveland Stevenson
(Photo: City of Madison)
“The biggest problem was that the station was directly across from the building that was on fire, but because it was the Town of Madison’s territory, we weren’t obligated to respond, and didn’t respond right away,” Hansbro remembers. “So they had to wait for the Town of Madison and support the volunteer fire departments until our department finally said, ‘Send somebody over there.’ But we didn’t respond because of the way things were set up … the protocol.
“If I had been working that night, I would have been going over there. They could have reprimanded me later,” he adds.
Hansbro and another firefighter, Jerold James, soon decided they needed to start a scholarship for the kids who perished in that fire. “Initially, what we did was we got every firefighter to throw in $100,” Hansbro remembers. “But that wasn’t enough. We needed to raise more money.”
That’s where Hansbro had the idea to start the Second Alarm Scholarship Benefit.
“We were met with a little resistance, because people didn’t think it was possible, and so I got stuck with the task of selling all the tickets, because I brought up the idea, and people didn’t want to believe it,” Hansbro says. “I said, ‘Well, I’ll sell the tickets just to prove to you that we can do it.’ So I sold most of the tickets and have been working on putting together that event from that point forward until I finally retired.”
The first event was held in 1992.
“That time we had a dance, we made it a workshop and everything, and gave people a chance to find out what a promising career it was to get on the fire department,” Hansbro says. “We had a lot of people show up, a lot of dignitaries from the state, county and the city that came in. We had Chief [Richard] Williams from the police. So it turned out to be pretty nice.”
For many years, the Second Alarm Scholarship Benefit was held at the Edgewater Hotel in downtown Madison. This year, it will be at The Tributary Hub, a former Menard’s on the East Side of Madison.
More than three decades in, Hansbro is hoping the younger generations will take over the Second Alarm Scholarship Benefit and move the beloved annual event into the future.
“It’s always a fun event. There are always a lot of community members there, a lot of socializing,” he says. “I love how this event every year brings people together and gives people a chance to see how you can empower your community.”
For tickets to the Second Alarm Scholarship Benefit, click here.
