A North Carolina firefighter was killed in a car wreck early Saturday while serving his first shift as a police officer.
Timothy Shane Miller, 27, had been a firefighter for nine years at the Williams Township Volunteer Fire Department, where his father Tony Miller is also a long time member and officer, and his mother Sue Miller is president of the Ladies Auxiliary.
Miller was also a member of the Brunswick Volunteer Fire Department and the Tabor City Rescue Squad. He had just been sworn in as a Tabor City police officer on Friday morning and reported for his first shift at 7 p.m., said fire department member Pam Prince. That night at 1 a.m., he and another officer were in pursuit of a vehicle when they crashed head-on into a different vehicle.
Although the Tabor City Fire Department was first due to the incident, Miller's fellow firefighters were called out to bring another set of Jaws, Prince said. It was the first time they had responded to a tragic accident involving one of their own. She said the officer who was driving required shoulder surgery and is now recovering, but Miller's injuries were fatal.
Prince said Miller had always wanted to be a firefighter and police officer. "He would tag along with his dad when he was a little kid," she said. "Helping people was what he wanted out of life." She said his ultimate goal was to become a state highway patrolman. Before he became a police officer, he worked as a state corrections officer.
Prince said Miller always had a joke to tell, and recalled a local school fire in January, when he worked for days to help recover classroom items for the teachers. "Whatever they wanted, he went in and got," she said.
She said several members of the department were with Miller's mother when she was told of her son's death, and that the entire department is coping together. "We're all one big family," she said.
A firefighter funeral was held for Miller on Monday at the Beaverdam Church in Chadbourn, at which the firefighter's prayer, the EMT's prayer and the policeman's prayer were all read, Prince said.
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