Firefighters hit road to honor fallen friend

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A group of Wilmington firefighters left early this morning for the funeral of a former colleague. Garrett Loomis was a Wilmington firefighter from September 2007 to January 2009. He died over the weekend while responding to a silo fire as a volunteer with the Sackets Harbor Fire Department in New York.

This morning 13 of the men he worked with here in the Port City hit the road to honor a friend who fell victim to the inherent risk of their job.

“We go out there and things like this happen all the time, and it’s something we don’t think about all the time because if we were to go to a fire or to go to a scene and think about the worse that could happen we wouldn’t be able to do our jobs,” firefighter Rodney Lester said. “He was just always real happy and just a good spirited guy. He always liked to joke around and make the best out of every situation.”

Loomis’s funeral is tomorrow. The firefighters will return to Wilmington Friday afternoon.