Fire chief on death of Lawrenceburg firefighter Jason Dickey: 'I’ve lost one of my boys.'
LAWRENCEBURG – When a roof collapsed onto firefighter Jason Dickey on Monday night, the men of the fire department were there to pull him from the charred rubble.
They were the ones who administered oxygen and tried to resuscitate him before he was rushed to a nearby hospital.
And when he was declared dead, they circled together to mourn — not as colleagues, but as a family.
“He was like one of my own,” Lawrenceburg Fire Chief Jay Moore said during a Tuesday morning news conference outside the fire station. “These kids that I call kids, cause I’m the oldest one here, are my boys, the boys that I never had.
"And I’ve lost one of my boys."
Dickey, 38, was an 11-year veteran with the department, and Moore said he had built his career on saving other people's lives.
He is survived by his wife Jennifer, a 16-year-old daughter, an 11-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. Jennifer Dickey is pregnant and expected to deliver a new baby soon, Moore said.
“This is hard on our community. This is hard on the fire department. It’s hard on the family,” he said, as members of Dickey's family wept quietly alongside fire department staff. “He has very caring family that we want to make sure we care for.”
The family requested privacy and through the fire department declined to comment.
"I want to ask for everyone’s prayers," Moore said, fighting back tears. "We’re going to get through this by God’s grace and mercy."
Fighting the blaze
The deadly fire broke out about 4 p.m. Monday at a home on the 500 block of Hoods Lake Road, about 85 miles southwest of Nashville.
Lloyd Carroll, 91, lived at the home with his wife. He said they were home watching "Gunsmoke" when their fire alarms went off. He called the department.
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After fighting the blaze for hours, several firefighters went inside to inspect the structure when the roof fell in on them, triggering a "Mayday" call at 7:57 p.m.
Crews sprang into action and pulled each man from the wreckage by 8:09 p.m.
Four other firefighters were taken to Southern Tennessee Regional Hospital for treatment, authorities said. They are expected to survive.
Officials have not released the cause of the fire. The investigation remains ongoing.
First Lawrenceburg firefighter death since 1978
Dickey was the first Lawrenceburg firefighter to die in the line of duty since 1978. As the community came together to grapple with the loss, the bond between firefighters and the communities they serve was on vivid display.
Staff from nearby departments deployed to help run Lawrenceburg’s department. Chief Ty Cobb of the Columbia Fire Department drove Moore to and from the scene on Hoods Lake Road where Dickey died.
And more than a dozen agencies between Lawrenceburg and Nashville escorted Dickey’s body to the medical examiner’s office in Davidson County.
Fire crews from Spring Hill, Maury County and La Vergne were among the dozens of vehicles that flanked Dickey's hearse when it arrived back in Lawrenceburg on Tuesday evening.
Hundreds of community members lined the streets to watch, with tears in their eyes and hands on their hearts.
During interviews with the crowd, Dickey’s service — to the city of Lawrenceburg, his wife and children, and his “fire family” — was a recurring theme.
Erin Woo, 37, said she grew up a few houses down from Dickey and was a high school classmate. While she waited for the motorcade to arrive, she recalled watching Dickey grow from an effervescent teenager to a dedicated family man.
In Lawrenceburg, a city of roughly 14,000 people, the definition of family can be broad. It has the heart of a small town, where friends wave at one another from across the town square and congregate together in times of triumph and tragedy.
Woo brought her 6-year-old son Jayden and 5-year-old daughter Callie into town Tuesday to watch Dickey's motorcade and to teach them about their tight-knit community.
"They need to understand and learn what it is to be a family," Woo said. "Here in Lawrenceburg we're a family, so when we lose one of our own, we bond together."
Dave Boucher contributed to this report. Reach Natalie Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.