“Helping people is the main thing when that alarm goes off.”
Meet Harvey Hennis.
“I really wanted to do this work when I got out of school,” Harvey said.
He’s been a firefighter with the Galax Fire Department for 58 years. He’s now the assistant chaplain and is 81 years old.
From cleaning up around the station to volunteering anywhere he can, Harvey is not slowing down anytime soon.
Today, you’ll see Harvey riding in the passenger seat of Tanker 10, unlike the 59 Mack fire truck that he used to ride back in the day.
“Back then, you rolled down the road and it is sleeting, you would have trouble getting people the hose because they all wanted to get to the fire to thaw out,” Harvey said.
“He is like the energizer bunny!” said Mike Ayer, Galax Fire and Rescue Chief. “His dedication is grounded in his faith.”
Ayers says faith-based-servant Harvey makes 90% of their calls, and when he’s on scene, he brings hope.
“Minister to either firefighters who have had a rough call or family who has a rough day,” Ayers said.
“Hopefully when they go home, they have the spirit of the Lord with them would be my goal,” Harvey explained. “Does not make me a hero, but God gives us the ability to do, and I truly believe that.”
With more than eight decades of life, Harvey has stories to tell, like how he ran an ambulance service out of a funeral home decades ago from a hearse vehicle.
“We had no radios,” he said. “It was you. If it was snowing sleeting, you fell in a hole. It was on you to get out of the hole.”
And with tons of stories, comes tons of funny memories on calls.
“We started down the steps from the second floor going down,” Harvey said. “He had the bottom of the cot and I had the top. It was sleeting. The guy holding the bottom of the cot’s feet hit the porch and slipped. We went across the porch with momma and out in the front yard.”
“I remember getting her up out of the snow and sleet,” he said. “Wiped her off, cover her up, get her back in the ambulance, and here we go again.”
He would also tell you, being a firefighter, things are not always smiles and laughter.
“We found the lady and we could not get her out,” Harvey said. “It is something when you go home on Christmas morning and your children and family are getting ready to have Christmas. That touches you.”
While fighting fires his entire life, Harvey has also been on fire for God, working as a deacon at First Baptist Church.
“Being a Deacon is like being a fireman because you are looking out for your people,” he said.
And he does just that in his tight-knit fire-fighting family, figuratively and literally.
Both his son and grandson work alongside him today.
Like with his family, Harvey is always there, sharing his wisdom of the industry with the younger firefighters in the department.
“When you get out here and have a close call or something like that, or what you run up on and see,” Harvey said. “That is what brings it to your heart.”
Harvey says he can only hope the legacy he has built in Galax inspires others to serve, no matter how old they are.
When asked how long he thinks he’ll stay with the department, he responded with, “However long the Lord wants me to stay and gives me the ability to do it. It gets to you sometimes, but you got to realize that God put you there for a reason. That is what I lean on. I really do.”
