VIDEO: The way Matt Boney describes it, what happened on Wednesday sounds like the biggest-hearted game of telephone ever, which managed — for 40 minutes — to turn a nightmare into the birthday surprise of any 6-year-old boy's dreams.
On Tuesday, Spring Valley firefighter Jared Lloyd, 35, died in the smoke and flame of the Evergreen Court Adult Home fire. The volunteer with Columbian Fire Engine Co. No. 1 was an Optimum service tech and the father of two boys: Darius, 5, and Logan.
Wednesday was Logan's 6th birthday and just his second day — of all of his 2,192 days — without his dad. He told his mother, Lloyd's girlfriend, that what he wanted for his birthday was a firetruck. When word got out, that telephone game got started.
Jared's boy wants a firetruck.
We've got firetrucks.
And ambulances.
And dumptrucks.
And police cruisers.