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Three days before the Independent Hose Company No. 1 in Jersey Shore was to hold the funeral service for one of their own at their station on Pennsylvania Avenue, members of the volunteer fire department answered the call three times that day to serve those in need. It was Monday, Jan. 15, a national holiday, but it was no holiday for Independent Hose.
As they wrestled with their own grief of suddenly losing 37-year-old fire Lt. Ronald Dailey, the firefighters continued to put on their protective gear, jump in their fire trucks and answer the call.
Actually, the fire company responded to more than half a dozen emergencies since they learned that Dailey, a father of three and a volunteer fireman for several years, and a co-worker were slain in a violent double shooting on Terrace Place, just west of Lycoming Engines in Williamsport about 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 12. Dailey and the co-worker, Alisha Seese, a 37-year-old mother of four, were security officers for a contractor serving Lycoming Engines.
Despite their anguish over losing Dailey, the firefighters at Independent Hose demonstrated again and again that they were ready and willing to drop everything when the alarm sounded; to keep going and HELP those in need.
On that Monday, they responded and provided essential assistance in battling a multiple-alarm house fire on Morgan Valley Road in Bastress Township. From there, they raced back to the borough to investigate a report of a vehicle into a structure on Kerr Avenue. Two hours later, they were dispatched to a report of smoke inside a home on Burke Street, working in tandem with their "uptown" brothers and sisters from Citizens Hose Co.
Nichol Elizabeth Sites, Dailey's sister, in remarks directed at fire company members, shared in a post that her brother "would want you all to keep pushing, to keep running those calls, and remember him while you're doing it."
Any member of Independent Hose will tell you Dailey was very dedicated to the fire service and he loved helping people. His fire chief, Robert Cowfer, told this reporter last week that Dailey "would take his shirt off his back and give it to you if you needed it."
Sites, who described her brother as "a small-town hero," said Dailey "was devoted to the fire department through every good and bad day. It did not matter what was occurring. He would drop everything at the time of the alarm and be on his way. And that is exactly what he would want each and every single one of you (in the fire company) to do, to continue on and think of him."
Sites told this reporter that Dailey was "a family man. If you couldn't find him at work or in the firehall, you would find him with his family or loving fiancee."
Cowfer said Dailey became engaged at Christmas.
Sites said "People need to know how great my brother was, but words can't describe how great he was or how much he will be missed."
Lycoming County Sheriff Mark Lusk, who knew Dailey for several years and lives in the Jersey Shore area, said last week he wasn't at all surprised by the grit and strength Independent Hose Co. members have shown in the midst of this "horrific and senseless tragedy."
"It is a very close fire company and they take part in several community events. They just keep going, answering call after call, and get the job done," he said. Dailey's funeral service was Thursday, Jan. 18. A little more than three hours after the service, firefighters once again got on their tanker truck, activated the emergency lights and siren on the apparatus and headed to Canoe Run Road in Mifflin Township to investigate a reported vehicle fire. Responding as well was Citizens Hose.
There is a lot of pain in the Jersey Shore fire community following Dailey's tragic death. Next time you see a volunteer firefighter -- from any community -- tell them THANK YOU. Give them a word of encouragement. Show them an expression of gratitude, wave at them as you pass by in your vehicle; give them the thumbs up.
Firefighters still serve while grieving. This clearly demonstrates the strength and dedication of the brotherhood-sisterhood in any strong firefighting community.
In the meantime, for the next several weeks, please remember in your prayers all those devastated by this unfathomable evil act that cut short two young lives.