BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — Departments around the mountains will gather to honor a Buncombe County firefighter who died while trying to save others from Helene storm conditions.
The Fairview Fire Department and the Garren Creek Fire Department honored Battalion ChiefTonyGarrison, 51, with a procession salute on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Officials say Garrison died on Sept. 27 while attempting a landslide rescue when a second landslide occurred.
FIREFIGHTER AND NEPHEW AMONG 13 KILLED IN CRAIGTOWN FROM HELENE
“That was his passion: to try and help people and, you know, he didn’t mind helping,” Garren Creek Fire Chief Wade Wright said of Garrison. “He also worked for a time in Fairview, and he volunteered his time here with us, and I hate we lost a good person.”
Garrison served as a battalion chief with the Fairview Fire Department and a volunteer firefighter with the Garren Creek Fire Department.
Buncombe County officials said in a Saturday, Oct. 19 press release that due to ongoing recovery efforts and road conditions, the final farewell salute will be held as Garrison’s remains are taken to the church for private services.
“He’d be honored,” said Vince Carter, Chief of Reynolds Fire Department. “I’m sure he would make a few funny little – Few funny little cracks. That’s just the way Tony was or in the way he would say some stuff but he’d be honored, he would be honored and he’d probably say ‘I don’t need all this, I don’t need this.'”
Carter and Garrison were friends for decades, even crisscrossing professionally for a few years at Reynolds.
“Tony always put the needs of others in front of himself,” Carter said.
Further arrangements after the salute are private and are by invitation only.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to one of the following: