By Todd Glasscock
Mineral Wells Index
LONE CAMP, Texas — A volunteer firefighter died Sunday while tending to an emergency medical call.
Larry O’Neil died on duty while responding to the call, said Palo Pinto County Fire Marshal Chad Jordan.
“I believe he suffered a heart attack,” Jordan said.
Jordan said he wasn’t sure if O’Neil died while en route to the scene or just after arriving.
“Larry was an asset to the Lone Camp Volunteer Fire Department, the Palo Pinto County Office of Emergency Management/Fire Marshal and the Palo Pinto County community,” said Chris Hale, Lone Camp Volunteer Fire Chief in a statement from the fire department and O’Neil’s family. “He will be missed greatly by all.”
With more than 30 years of experience in emergency services and as a firefighter, O’Neil and his wife, Jo Lynn, came to Palo Pinto County from LaPorte. He was 18 when he began his career in firefighting.
O’Neil filled in as the county’s interim fire marshal in May 2014, taking over for Buddy Harwell, and served in the position through August 2014, when Jordan took over full time.
Jordan said O’Neil was invaluable to him getting adjusted to his role as fire marshal.
“He was always available,” Jordan said. “He was a true professional and worked diligently.”
One of the first duties O’Neil had as fire marshal was enforcing the county’s burn ban while the county was caught up in one of its worst droughts.
Even after Jordan took over the position, O’Neil assisted him by gathering data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that looked at potential fire risks in the county.
The research helped convince Palo Pinto County commissioners to elevate the burn ban at the time, restricting use of all combustible material.
Part of O’Neil’s drought research included driving out to area lakes to get a sense of how dry it was, and making flyover of the lakes, taking aerial photos of the dwindling water supplies.
There were spots of lake bed then so dry it was easy to drive uninterrupted from shore to shore, he noted then.
While the drought was a concern, taking care of the people caught up in fires seemed his main concern.
In the short time was interim fire marshal, he had to assist a family caught in well house flare up and had to see the tears of store owners and neighbors who lost a community land mark when the Lone Camp Store burned down after an electrical failure.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Oct. 31 at Lone Camp Baptist Church.
His family said in lieu of flowers to consider a donation to either the Lone Camp Fire Department, P.O. Box 485, Palo Pinto, TX 76484 or to another local fire department.
(c)2015 the Mineral Wells Index