SILER CITY, N.C. — One community in the Triangle area is remembering a fallen first responder – a volunteer firefighter who died in a crash early Tuesday morning.
It’s easy to forgot the kind of dedication and work ethic it takes to be a volunteer firefighter. These brave men and women put their lives on the line to help their communities.
Tuesday morning in Chatham County, one such volunteer firefighter, Joshua Woods, was responding to a call when his car crashed and he died.
In a WNCN exclusive, reporter Amy Cutler spoke with his mother.
The loss of Woods — who was also a married father of two children — is a big hit to the Siler City Fire Department. His ‘turn out’ gear was placed outside the fire station Tuesday night.
And as we quickly learned … he has touched a lot of lives.
“He was my everything. My baby,” mom Jackie Woods said through tears as she remembered her son.
It’s hard to imagine the kind of pain, the grief Jackie Woods is dealing with. Her 24 year old died in a crash while responding to a volunteer firefighting call at the time.
“He loved that. That was one of his main things, being a firefighter,” the grieving mother said.
The crash happened at around 1 a.m. with the NC Highway Patrol saying that Woods was headed south on Silk Hope Road when he crossed the center line.
He overcorrected and struck a ditch, then hit two trees. Woods died at the scene.
He’s been serving with the Siler City Fire Department for almost three years.
The chief said it’s a huge loss. Woods was the kind of guy who would drop everything to help out.
“A great guy, went out of his way to help anybody out and would never ask, if you asked him to do something he would go and do it,” chief Scott Murphy told WNCN.
That is how his family wants to remember him. Woods married his longtime girlfriend in May – less than a year ago.
They have two sons together … A third child is due in April.
Then, he also had a day job … He worked in the kitchen at Sir Pizza. His coworkers there are collecting money.
They say they needed to do something.
Back at the home where he grew up, his family also coming together.
“Loved in the community, outside the community. He’s never given anybody any trouble,” said aunt Michelle Scott.
His mother says she saw her son Monday night … He was helping his grandmother to bed — something he did all the time
” He was loving, he was caring. He was a good father and he was the best brother and the best son anybody could ever have,” mom Jackie Woods.
