By Douglass Dowty
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)
Copyright 2006 Post-Standard
All Rights Reserved.
The radio crackled at a tough time for Mexico Fire Chief Doug Horton, who was mourning the death of firefighter Charles Fortier Jr.
Fortier died in a car crash with his pregnant girlfriend Tuesday morning.
There was black bunting outside and a somber hush inside the firehouse Wednesday.
In the quietness, the emergency scanner came to life: One person was trapped and three others injured in a two-car rollover crash in the town of Richland.
Within minutes, Horton assembled a crew and headed out to the scene at county Routes 41 and 28. It’s the place two people were killed and three injured in near-identical crashes within seven hours of each other Aug. 31, 2000, according to news accounts.
On the way, Horton couldn’t take his mind off the volunteer who had given his all to the department before dying in a crash the day before.
“Coming onto this knowing what happened yesterday, it’s a tough call,” Horton said. “But it’s in our blood and our system. We’re trained to do what we’ve got to do.”
The scene had the appearance of a fatal crash. Three generations of women, the oldest being 80, were in a Pontiac Sunfire when it crashed and came to rest upside down in the brush off the east side of the road. The other driver didn’t stop at a stop sign along county Route 28, authorities said, and her Nissan Quest van crashed into the car along its front driver’s side door before coming to rest on the opposite side of the road against a pole.
Horton immediately flew into action, helping to carry the van’s driver to a McFee ambulance headed for University Hospital. He comforted Renee M. Moonan, 47, of 4993 Marshfield Court, Clay, as she wrung her arms and mumbled in pain.
“I know, I know,” he told her soothingly. “It’s all right, hon, we got you.”
All three people in the car, Willa V. Jacobson, 27, of 220 Center St., Apt. 7, Massena, her mother Wilma Jacobson, 58, of 31 Jacobson Drive, Parish, and grandmother Norine Waterbury, 80, 4920 N. Jefferson St., Pulaski, were taken to Syracuse area hospitals. Wilma Jacobson was airlifted, said Oswego County sheriff’s deputies.
When the situation Wednesday was under control, Horton had time to remember Fortier, 29, and his girlfriend, Jessica L. Simmons, 25.
“She was very quiet,” Horton recalled. “Chucky (Fortier) kind of kept his private life to himself. She might sit in the car and read a book while he drilled at the fire station.”
Madison County sheriff’s deputies said the Mexico couple died after the car they were riding in crashed head-on into a 10-wheel truck at approximately 10:24 a.m. Tuesday on Lake Road in Lenox.
Fortier’s father, a 35-year veteran of the Mexico fire department, said his son had dedicated his life to serving others.
“He was just a great kid, he loved people, he loved being a firefighter, and he had a golden heart,” said Charles Fortier Sr.
Horton called a meeting of firefighters for Wednesday night to plan the memorial for Fortier.
Fortier’s family invites the public to a 10 a.m. funeral Mass Saturday at St. Anne Mother of Mary Catholic Church in Mexico. A celebration of the younger Fortier’s life will follow at the Mexico firehouse, his father said.