Capt. Paul Phillips has been long gone, but Lt. Jason Brod can still hear his voice whenever he visits the training grounds next to Bonita Springs Fire Station 4.
"Every time I've been out here since he left us — come out here to train, come out here to do stuff — I hear that voice echoing off these walls," said Brod, standing in front of the station's redbrick training tower, surrounded by Phillips' friends, family and former colleagues.
"I bet if we sat here for a minute we'd probably hear that voice. Or we'd hear that laugh — and you know the laugh I'm talking about — echoing in that building in here."
Phillips, a firefighter for 32 years, passed away late last year when he fell off a tree stand during a hunting excursion with his son. He was 58 years old and less than two weeks from retiring when he died.
Wednesday, scores of firefighters from nearly every corner of Southwest Florida gathered to honor Phillips, dedicate the training tower in his name and share stories about the man who had taught so many of them.
Like Calvin Payne, who has worked as a firefighter at the Bonita Springs fire district for four years and learned under Phillips.
"Even with Paul's superior experience and rank, he never stood above us, barking orders," Payne said. "He'd rather work next to us, guiding us."
Phillips' successor, Training Captain Eric Madden, said he is still amazed about the constant, even-keeled demeanor Phillips exhibited "in a world full of alpha males."
"Not one single time did I hear Paul Phillips raise his voice," Madden said. "I have no idea — I've been doing this job for six months — I have no clue how he did that."
Phillips spent much of his time with the fire district — where he worked for more than a decade — on the training ground. He would run through the pitch black rooms of the 5-story training tower, crawl through its built-in, 3-story maze or lug heavy hoses up and down the building's stairwell. Through scorching heat and biting smoke, he would lead his men through the burning metal barracks — now named "Paul's House of Pain" in his honor — on the other side of the training ground.
And he loved every second of it.
"The training ground you see really was his playground," Payne said. "Like a kid in a candy store, it was always apparent how happy he was to be here."
After a long day at work, a tired Phillips would return to his Buckingham home where his wife Linda would be waiting for him.
"I know how hard that man worked," said Linda Phillips, 60, her voice cracking beneath heavy tears. "He was exhausted, but he loved it. It was a good exhaustion."
Wednesday's ceremony, which Linda Phillips and her family watched from the front row, was "bittersweet," she said.
"It was happy and sad," Linda Phillips said. "He was one-of-a-kind."
After hearing Phillips' former colleagues share their memories, each family member touched a white dove — meant to represent Phillips — before it was released into the cloudless sky alongside three other doves — representing the holy trinity.
Firefighters then took turns taking pictures in front of the shimmering commemorative plaque affixed to the tower, which was built in 2004, as family members toured the hulking building.
For Deputy Chief Cesar Sanchez, Phillips was an inspiration even away from the tower that now bears his name.
He still remembers the last conversation he had with Phillips, in the station's parking lot.
"I had just received some undesirable news about promotions. I was real down on myself. Angry," Sanchez recalled. "And that morning I saw Paul and Lt. Brod walk over to me, hands extended, almost as if they were ready to congratulate me and I couldn't say a word to them. I couldn't even look Paul in the eyes. Here was the man who was my mentor, the closest thing I've ever had to a father and I (…) felt like I had disappointed him."
Later, that same day, Phillips stopped by the station to talk to Sanchez.
"He said, 'You know, I've never seen you lose at anything,' " Sanchez said. "He goes, 'You always win or you learn.'"
Phillips' words lifted Sanchez's spirit.
"He pulled me out of the darkness that day," Sanchez said. "To me this tower is the beacon of strength and faith that represents Paul."
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