LCS: Community rallies to help volunteer firefighter

Many community members gathered at Boondocks bar and grill Sunday evening to support and fundraiser for Possum Kingdom Eastside Volunteer firefighter Rachael Smith after she lost everything in a house fire July 6.

Smith said she had been a volunteer firefighter for eight years since she was 17-years-old. She said she had left for the store to get her son, Oliver, some milk when she received the call from her aunt that her house, off FM 2353, was on fire.

“So I drove to my mom’s, dropped my son off, went to the station, geared up and went to my own house fire,” Smith said. “It was hard (to fight my own house fire). I have had the house for about two years and I have lived on the lake most of my life. It was overwhelming, all my guys were there and everyone that was on the scene was crying.”

She said there are about 20 members in her department and nearly all of them showed up to help take on the fire.

“I literally had retired members showing up to my house fire because it went over the radio,” Smith said. “I had friends, family members, and people from other departments were toned and heard it was my house and a bunch of other people come. I had a retired firefighter who hadn’t been on the force in 15 years show up to make sure I was ok.”

For the rest of the story, see the Wednesday, Sept. 11 edition of The Graham Leader.