HENDERSON—Vance County firefighters have rallied around the Forsythe family after Allison Forsythe died on March 1. She was a passenger in a plane that crashed shortly after taking off from Triangle North Executive Airport near Louisburg, killing all three occupants.
Charles Forsythe, Allison’s father, worked in fire prevention for 35 years. He was chief of the Watkins Volunteer Fire Department when he retired in 2014. “She loved to be the fire chief’s daughter,” he told The Daily Dispatch.
That sense of kinship extends to those who share the firefighter’s dangers and duties. It was demonstrated in the way Vance County firefighters reacted as a family to the Forsythe’s loss.
“We went to Sossamon Funeral Home to find out the balance due on Allison’s funeral,” Vance County Fire Chief Chris Wright said, adding that the board of the Vance County Firefighters Relief Fund voted unanimously to use its resources to pay off the remaining $4,100.
The state Firefighters Relief Fund was established in 1907 by the N.C. State Firefighters Association to help firefighters injured in the line of duty and also to assure that no firefighters become destitute through no fault of their own.
“You can use it to help out families of firemen,” Wright said.
The Firefighters Relief Fund is funded by a portion of the tax on fire insurance policies. Funds are distributed each year to local relief funds by the state insurance commissioner.
Allison Forsythe, 26 at the time of her death, was a graduate student at East Carolina University and would have received a master’s degree in counselor education in May.
———
©2019 Henderson Daily Dispatch, N.C.
Visit Henderson Daily Dispatch, N.C. at www.hendersondispatch.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
