Capt. Paul Phillips has been long gone, but Lt. Jason Brod can still hear his voice whenever he visits the training grounds next to Bonita Springs Fire Station 4.
"Every time I've been out here since he left us — come out here to train, come out here to do stuff — I hear that voice echoing off these walls," said Brod, standing in front of the station's redbrick training tower, surrounded by Phillips' friends, family and former colleagues.
"I bet if we sat here for a minute we'd probably hear that voice. Or we'd hear that laugh — and you know the laugh I'm talking about — echoing in that building in here."
Phillips, a firefighter for 32 years, passed away late last year when he fell off a tree stand during a hunting excursion with his son. He was 58 years old and less than two weeks from retiring when he died. Wednesday, scores of firefighters from nearly every corner of Southwest Florida gathered to honor Phillips, dedicate the training tower in his name and share stories about the man who had taught so many of them.