By Alex Mitchell
Billings Gazette
FROMBERG, Mont. — One last call from Carbon County dispatch requesting assistance rang out from a portable radio for Everett Edwards from Clark Fork Valley Ambulance. In between the repeated calls in a high school gym filled with firefighters and medics. Silence.
It was Edwards’ last call after a life dedicated to service and an ultimately fatal on-duty ambulance crash June 16. He was 84 when he succumbed to injuries on June 23 surrounded by his loved ones. Before that last call he served as a volunteer to both the Fromberg Volunteer Fire Department for 50 years and Clark Fork Valley Ambulance for 46 years.
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Bridger Fire Chief Steve Fendler said Edwards was never going to retire from the job he picked. He described him as always on call with knowledge of all the addresses in Carbon County.
“He wanted to help,” Fendler told more than 200 gathered for the memorial in the Fromberg High School Gym in a town of 422 people. Fire trucks, ambulances, and a St. Vincent helicopter surrounded the high school as first responders attended the memorial Friday morning.
Edwards served in the army before setting up a blacksmith shop in Fromberg. By the time he was 25, he could be found working “side by side with the members of the Fromberg Fire department,” his obituary said.
He also served as a deacon, elder and youth-group leader at Bridger’s Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
While Edwards doesn’t have any grandchildren, Fendler said he adopted all of the volunteers. He treated the rest of the crew like family as well and would always be the one to know how members of the community were holding up in the hospital. He was close with the community he had spent more than 50 years in too.
“Sometimes, we had to remind him it wasn’t a family reunion when out on calls,” Fendler said.
Members of Edwards’ family recommend instead of flowers to donate to the fire department or to spend time volunteering with first responder services in his memory.
The dispatch call with no response concluded with recognizing Edwards’ lifetime of service.
“You will always be in the heart and minds of our fellow first responders, friends and the community you served. Godspeed.”
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