Highway Stretch Dedicated to Fallen SC Assistant Chief

June 14, 2019
Charlotte Road/Van Wyck Assistant Fire Chief Dennis C. Straight was killed when he was hit by vehicle while directing traffic at a crash scene in November.

LANCASTER, SCA stretch of road in Lancaster County near where a Lancaster fire chief was killed in 2018 at a crash scene was dedicated in his name Thursday.

Part of S.C. 5 from the Catawba River bridge bordering York County to U.S. 521 is now named the “Dennis C. Straight Memorial Highway.”

“The sign that honors him is not 100 yards from where the incident happened,” said Lancaster County Fire Marshal Russell Rogers. “Chief Straight deserves this honor.”

Straight, 59, died Nov. 7 while working a wreck near the intersection of S.C. 5 and U.S. 521. He was struck by a vehicle, S.C. Highway Patrol troopers said.

Straight was assistant chief at the Van Wyck station at the time he died. He was a volunteer for more than 20 years with the Charlotte Road/Van Wyck department that serves much of the Indian Land and middle areas of Lancaster County, between Lancaster and the North Carolina border.

A marker in downtown Lancaster also added Straight’s name Thursday.

Straight will be honored by the S.C. Firefighters Association later this month at its annual tribute to firefighters killed on duty, Rogers said. Straight also will be honored in the fall by a national firefighters group in Maryland.

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©2019 The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.)

Visit The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.) at www.heraldonline.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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