A Georgia Battalion Chief collapsed and died in the line of duty Monday night after completing a three mile walk as part of his monthly physical fitness training.
Battalion Chief Randy Hill, 43, volunteered for the Screven County Fire Department in Sylvania, Georgia for about 15 years. His death followed less than a year after the death of department Firefighter Jeremy Brown, 27, who suffered a heart attack while responding to a fire call.
"It hasn't quite sunk in yet," said Firefighter Tony Smoak. "Some of the firefighters are taking it pretty good, some pretty bad."
Chief Harvey Cryder, Jr. said fellow firefighters and paramedics with Medstar Emergency Medical Service rendered aid immediately, and transported Hill to Screven County hospital, where efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.
"Chief Hill was a long time member of the Hiltonia Fire Department and the Screven County Fire Department," Cryder said in a prepared statement. "His leadership and friendship will be sorely missed."
Hill is survived by his parents and sister. He worked as a farmer, and operated out of the fire department's Station 5. "He was just a down-home country boy that everybody got along with," Smoak said.
The Screven County Fire Department is a combination department with seven stations, about 100 volunteer firefighters and several paid employees. They cover an area of 655 square miles and a population of 15,000 in a rural area northeast of Savannah.
Visitation for Chief Hill will be at Thompson, Strickland, Waters Funeral Home in Sylvania, Georgia on April 8 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Services will take place on Wednesday, April 9 at 3:00 p.m. in the Chapel at Thompson, Strickland, Waters Funeral Home in Sylvania. Burial will follow in the Screven Memorial Cemetery on East Ogeechee Street in Sylvania.
DIRECTIONS TO SYLVANIA
Directions From Augusta: Take Hwy 25 to Waynesboro then take Hwy 24 to Hwy 301 South to Sylvania. Turn left on Singleton Ave. Thompson, Strickland, Waters Funeral Home will be on the right.
Directions From I-16: Take Hwy 301 North to Sylvania. Then take a right on Singleton Ave. Thompson, Strickland, Waters Funeral Home will be on the right.
