By Alex Riggins
The Times-News
TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Ryan Mark Franklin was “hard working, dedicated and a pleasure to be around.”
Twin Falls Fire Department Battalion Chief Mitchell Brooks wore a black ribbon pinned to his white polo shirt Thursday as he talked about Franklin a day after the 34-year-old firefighter was killed in a hit-and-run crash while cycling south of Kimberly.
Franklin, who was switched to Brooks’ crew April 16, was scheduled to work a 24-hour shift starting Thursday at 8 a.m. Instead, the members of his shift spent the day answering calls and remembering their fallen crew member.
“What you saw was what you got with Ryan,” Brooks said. “He was a true gentleman. He had a lot of respect for the department and the profession. He was a devoted family man — they came first. And he was devoted to his faith.”
Franklin, a married father of four and avid cyclist, was a tanker driver in the department and had recently completed EMT training and passed the EMT test. He aspired to be a driver, Brooks said, the next step up from firefighter.
He joined the department about 2 ½ years ago, and before that he taught middle-school English and coached basketball at Lighthouse Christian School from 2008 until 2014.
“It was actually his third attempt testing with the Twin Falls Fire Department that we were fortunate enough to hire him,” Brooks said. “I wish we would have done it on the first attempt, to be honest with you.”
Franklin, who Brooks called a leader among some of the younger firefighters, is the first department employee to die since 2005 when Cpt. Gary Robert Heidemann died from a heart attack.
Brooks said the wives of the department’s firefighters planned to meet Thursday night to plan meals for Franklin’s family and discuss other ways to help his widow, Aime, and their four children. The firefighters have also discussed ways to help the family, particularly making sure everything works properly at the newly built home the family recently moved into.
While the department rallied around Franklin’s family physically and emotionally, the community rallied around the family financially, raising nearly $40,000 on gofundme.com.
The “Ryan Franklin Memorial Fund” started early Wednesday with a goal of raising $10,000 for the family. Just hours later that goal was met and a new goal was set at $20,000. But when the donations kept pouring in, the goal was raised to $45,000.
By 7 p.m. Thursday more than 360 people had combined to donate $39,180.
Messages of condolences continued to pour in on social media as well Thursday, many of them posted by Facebook users who shared links to the memorial fund and changed their profile pictures to the TFFD crest with Franklin’s photo in the center.
Steve Price, Franklin’s teammate on the Magic Valley CT Velo cycling team, called Franklin a safe cyclist who obeyed the laws of the road.
“He died doing what he loved to do,” Price said Wednesday.
Brooks said Franklin’s cycling and other physical activities kept him in better shape than anyone else in the department.
“I wish I had 12 Ryans, and I mean that with no disrespect to the other firefighters,” Brooks said Thursday.
St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center has offered counseling to department employees, Brooks said. Talking about through their emotions has helped Franklin’s fellow firefighters, but he expects the loss to be felt deeper as time goes on, both at the department and at the Franklin home.
“This is going to take an effort by all of us in the community to help Aime out as much as we can,” Brooks said. “I think the important part is to continue the support, you know once all this settles down, I think we’re really going to have to step up later on down the road. When she’s left there with just the kids, I think that’s when it’s going to be most important.”
COpyright 2016 The Times-News