By Holly Zachariah
The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
Copyright 2007 The Columbus Dispatch
All Rights Reserved
MECHANICSBURG, Ohio — No one saw Jon Trainer tumble from the top of the firetruck.
But they heard him.
And suddenly, everything changed. The crew that had just returned from fighting a house fire in the Champaign County village of Mechanicsburg on Tuesday night had a new mission: Save one of their own.
Tim Shonkwiler, the village’s assistant fire chief, knelt, fighting to keep Trainer alive. But in the end, he couldn’t.
The tragedy was especially personal for Shonkwiler. The two men were more than colleagues; they were cousins.
Trainer, a 38-year-old Mechanicsburg firefighter, smacked his head on the concrete pad in front of the firehouse when he fell about 10 feet from the top of the truck as he was trying to secure a hose. He died about 10 p.m. at Mercy Hospital in Urbana.
He was part of a four-person crew that had just returned to the station from a house fire on Sandusky Street. Trainer might have misjudged his position atop the fire engine or tangled his foot in some gear and fallen while trying to shake it loose, Shonkwiler said. An investigation continues, with the help of the state fire marshal’s office.
Meanwhile, Trainer’s friends and relatives and other members of the 45-person village fire department are trying to cope with the loss of a man who was always willing to do more than was asked of him.
“He was here even on his days off, and here late at night. He always went the extra step,” Shonkwiler said. “What the world needs is a whole lot more people just like him.”
Trainer grew up in Mechanicsburg, 25 miles west of Columbus, and graduated from high school there in 1987. He left the Champaign County village of 1,700 residents for a few years and, when he returned, he quickly set a goal of becoming a local firefighter.
Though he worked full-time as an Adecco supervisor based at the Honda plant in East Liberty, he had been with the village’s fire department for more than two years and dedicated most of his spare time to the station.
He helped with remodeling projects and had recently organized a charity event for the department and the village.
“There just wasn’t anything that you couldn’t ask him to do,” Shonkwiler said. “It hasn’t really sunk in around here yet that he’s gone.”
A visitation is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the gymnasium of the Mechanicsburg Jr./Sr. High School, with services there starting at 11 a.m. Monday. The Skillman, McDonald & Vernon Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.