Being a firefighter is in Quentin Cash’s blood.
Cash comes from a long line of firefighters and spent much of his youth in the Cherryville Fire Department where his father, Jeff Cash, was chief.
“When I was born, after we left the hospital we went straight to fire department,” he said.
Since then he has worked his way up the hierarchy to Shelby battalion chief and Cherryville Fire Department assistant chief. His work with both departments also earned him the award of Fire Officer of the Year from the N.C. Association of Fire Chiefs in January.
“I was very surprised,” Cash said.
Being the son of a fire chief meant that Cash already had an idea of how a fire station ran, but he started like many in his field as a volunteer firefighter.
“The apple doesn’t fall from the tree,” said Cherryville Fire Chief Jeff Cash.
Jeff described how Quentin and his siblings were raised in the station. By the time he was 14, Quentin was already a volunteer firefighter.