By Shelby Young
Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
Copyright 2007 Charleston Newspapers
CHARLESTON, W. Va. — Fathers and sons seek many ways to create a bond with each other, but most of them find ways that don’t involve flames, smoke, water and danger.
In Putnam County, however, fathers and sons serve in volunteer fire departments together on both sides of the river.
Kevin McCoy, a senior at Buffalo High School, actually joined the Bancroft Volunteer Fire Department first, then eventually talked his father, Tim, into signing up to be a firefighter, too.
“He convinced me that it was a great way to give something back to the community,” Tim McCoy said recently, as he stood outside a flaming building in Hurricane, watching his son prepare to go into his live fire training exercise where an abandoned structure is set on fire to give firefighters more experience in dealing with conditions of dense smoke and extremely high temperatures.
Although Kevin has been a member of Bancroft VFD for some time, until he turned age 18 he was not allowed to join the front line of firefighters who go into burning buildings, the elder McCoy explained.
Earlier in the exercise, the two men worked together assisting other firefighters with donning the heavy protective gear and backpack air supplies needed when firefighters go into areas where there is no breathable air and the heat sometimes exceeds 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Finally it was Kevin’s turn to face the interior inferno.
Tim McCoy stood back a few yards as his son wrapped his arms around the heavy fire hose and the three-man team of which he was a part began their slow, crouching walk through the door where smoke billowed forth.
“It takes a high level of commitment to do what volunteer firemen do,” Tim said, his eyes never leaving the door.
The team inside had almost disappeared into the smoke, staying close together.
“When you go in like that, you find yourself reaching behind you, reaching back to be sure the guy in back of you is still there,” he said quietly.
A few feet away, Teays Valley VFD Fire Chief John Smoot, who was serving as an instructor in the exercise, was leaning deep in discussion with a member of his department, his son, Jonathan Smoot.
Earlier, Jonathan had been on the top of the building, helping cut a hole in the roof while his father watched from the ground.
Jonathan’s brother, Cody, is also a member of the Teays Valley VFD. Both are students at Winfield High School as well as being their family’s third generation of firefighters.
“I’m second generation,” Chief Smoot said. “My dad is chief at Cedar Grove. We have some pretty good conversations now.”
John said the impact of what his sons were doing hit him pretty hard recently during a fire emergency.
“I had just jumped into the truck and we were headed out when I looked around to see who else had answered the call. I looked back and realized Jonathan was sitting back there behind me.”
There are moments, he said.
There are moments.
Meanwhile, Kevin McCoy is out from his first foray into a burning house, stripping off his breathing mask and trying to cool down. His gear is fire resistant and flame retardant, but neither heatproof nor entirely fireproof. If it got hot enough, it would burn, too.
“It was really dark in there,” he said. “Then the fire started to roll over the top of our heads. Yesterday when we burned the barn, it seemed really close inside.”
“It was like being inside a shoebox,” Kevin said, then changed the subject.
“Spring break’s over tomorrow and I’m still not ready to go back to school. A bunch of us went to New York for a few days and then when I got back, it was time for this fire training. The time went fast.”
After The Big Apple and fighting a couple of fires, he would have plenty to talk about in the hallway at Buffalo High the following day if someone asked him what he did during his break.
Jonathan Smoot is planning to attend college, probably Glenville State University, on an athletic scholarship. He’s been on the varsity football and baseball teams at Winfield.
“Jonathan’s taken an interest in the fire department lately,” his chief, and father, said. “But he has lots of interests.”
Cody, on the other hand, doesn’t plan to follow that path exactly.
“I think I’m going to become a career firefighter,” he said the next day, after he had finished demonstrating some of the TVFD equipment to a group of children visiting the fire station. “Maybe with one of the departments up in Charleston.”