HILLIARD, OH (WCMH) — NBC4 has been bringing you stories about the large number of firefighters in our area through a series called The Fighting 126. Many have fought the disease and won but there has been loss.
For the Hilliard Fire Department, that loss is felt every day after the passing of Lieutenant Brian Davis. Davis has been referred to as the light of the fire station. He had a great laugh, loved people and never met a stranger.
Davis battled cancer the same way that he fought fires – with bravery. Last year, after a hard fought battle, he passed away leaving his wife, two kids, the fire department and a legacy.
“Brian was probably the most lively person I’ve been around the most positive person I’ve been around,” Cameron Smith said Lieutenant Brian Davis was everything you want in a firefighter. “He just loved people. He was a servant.”
Davis was a family man and a community leader. “He could talk to anybody. He could talk to a brick wall and it would probably talk back.” said Firefighter Austin Miller. Miller has been with the fire department for four years and said when he got there Davis took good care of him. “He kinda took me under his wing…He was a brother he really was. You could talk to him about anything.”
Davis had a saying that’s known well around the fire department. “’We get to.’ That was his statement,” Miller said. “We have bad days just like anybody does around here but ‘we get to’ do this job,” Smith explained.
As the cancer weakened Davis’ body it didn’t touch his spirit. “He was always saying how he was going to beat it. It never crossed my mind that he was going to leave his life to it,” said Miller. “Even up to the final days he was alive. He kept the faith and was a very faithful person and there is no doubt he is looking down on us smiling watching us “get to” right now,” said Smith.
Now, one year later Davis’ gear is in the locker where he left it alongside Smith’s gear. “Every day I just kind of touch his name. Every day I come in and every day I leave and get to think about him.”
His name is still on the white board. There is a void you can’t really fill.”
His legacy live on, along with a group of firefighters who feel grateful for every day that they “get to.”