On May 16, our fire service family lost a man who was a friend to every person that he met. Retired firefighter George Decker was just that person. George worked on A-shift at Stations 14, 3, 8, and 12 for the majority of his career. George was a humble, humorous, and hard-working guy. To look at George, you would not expect to find that he was college educated; he could also figure numbers in his head faster than anyone I knew. He was also a good carpenter. After his death, many firefighters began to post memories of George on Facebook. George was truly loved by many.
Most of my time working alongside George was at Station 14. One of the most memorable calls that I went to with George was when the tornado hit the Walmart in Colonial Heights. I was working traded time on A-shift. At first, we were dispatched to the Appomattox River Bridge on I-295, for an overturned tractor-trailer. Once it was determined that the accident was on the Enon-Varina bridge, we were then poised to respond to the Walmart. George and I were a part of a crew that shored walls and made building assessmentsfor the better part of the evening. George knew what needed to be done, and we did it.
George and my father-in-law helped my brother-in-law frame his house. George used to always say how sorry he felt for my father-in-law, due to the fact that I married his daughter. He would just laugh and laugh. George knew that my in-laws had a place in West Virginia, and he would always ask, “Petey, have you hunted or fished in West Virginia lately?” George loved those two things and loved talking about them just as much.
I don’t know how many young firefighters George mentored, but it was a lot. He was a really good pump operator. In other words, he knew how to get water in and out of a fire truck no matter what the situation. He also knew how to teach others to do the same.
I haven’t seen George since he retired. He lived in Standardsville (north of Charlottesville), so he never made the journey to our retiree luncheons. I commented the other day that to know George was to love George. It was always going to be a good time when he was around. Thank you, George, for being a good friend and for your years as a firefighter. May God comfort his family in this time of loss.
