Cody Larque said that growing up, he always wanted to be a firefighter, and 2018 was a special year for him. Larque, 26, was named the 2018 Searcy Fire Department Firefighter of the Year during an awards ceremony in early January. “As a kid, I always played with firetrucks,” he said. “As I got older, I kind of learned a little bit more and what it was all about — it’s helping people in their time of need. It meant something to me from the beginning.” Larque, who attended the Arkansas Fire Training Academy at Southern Arkansas University Tech in Camden in 2014, is all about saving people. In fact, he used his lifesaving skills on Nov. 8 to help a mother who ran to the station carrying her baby boy, who was choking.