By Amy Leigh Womack
The Macon Telegraph
MACON, Ga. — This Thanksgiving will be one of mixed emotions for the family of a former Macon-Bibb County firefighter.
It will be the one-year anniversary of the house fire in northwest Atlanta that fatally burned six-year veteran firefighter Steven Solomon, 33.
But for Solomon’s sons, 13-year-old Kennard and 10-year-old Kenneth, it will also mark the first holiday season they’ll be spending with their mother, Solomon’s ex-wife Sarena, in a new home built with nearly 100 percent firefighter labor.
“It’s a blessing for us,” Sarena Solomon said. "(The boys) will have their own rooms.”
Macon-Bibb County Fire Department Capt. James Wallace said firefighters will soon begin building a three-bedroom, two-bath log home for Solomon’s family on a one-acre lot on Briar Creek Run in Lizella.
He said the home is being funded through a donation from Barna Log Homes in Atlanta, which provided the materials for the home and training to firefighters who will assemble the logs.
The only financial burden on the family is a $50,000 30-year mortgage, taxes and homeowners insurance.
Wallace said the foundation is scheduled to be poured by the first of next week and the flooring will be well under way by the first week of September.
“We’re figuring the way we’re doing it, it’ll be (finished) somewhere around the end of October,” he said. “Our plan is to get them into there so they can have Thanksgiving in their new home.”
Although Solomon was no longer employed as a Macon-Bibb firefighter at the time of his death, Wallace said a sense of brotherhood moved firefighters in both Macon and Atlanta to do something to help the family he left behind.
“If you ever worked with him, you knew he was a quiet, solemn, soft spoken guy,” Wallace said. “Whoever he came into touch with liked him.
“We lost a brother and a friend.”
Anyone interested in donating money or who wishes to help build the house is asked to contact the Macon-Bibb Fire Department at 751-9180.
Copyright 2007 The Macon Telegraph
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News