VIDEO: Zach Miller had always wanted to be a firefighter.
He started as a cadet at the fire department in Elsie, north of Lansing, at just 16 and graduated from the fire academy last June.
On Tuesday evening, just hours after his tragic death at age 20, he was remembered as a hero.
Miller was driving to Lansing where he worked part-time as a mechanic. Deputies say he was involved in a minor crash near St. Johns, between Lansing and Elsie.
“There was an accident. He got out and was trying to render aid to another person when another vehicle came up and that’s when he was struck,” Elsie Fire Department Assistant Chief Shane Grinnell said. Miller graduated from Ovid-Elsie High School just a few years ago. He was one of the youngest members of the Elsie Area Fire Department, but Grinnell said that never slowed him down.