Harold Pennington, chief of the Unity-Frost Prairie Volunteer Fire Department, collapsed at his home and died after returning from a grass fire on Ashley 6 (the Old Schoolhouse Road) Sunday, March 28.
The fire call came in around 3:15 p.m. Sunday and Pennington and other firefighters with the department responded.
"Harold got on the new truck and ran the pump," said firefighter Don Greene. "He got down off the truck and told a couple of the firefighters his chest was hurting, and drove home in his truck. I knew that wasn't like Harold. He usually stays until the end of a fire."
Greene and two more firefighters went to Pennington's house following the fire, to get tools to prepare for a Monday, March 29, trip to get a new piece of equipment for the fire department. "We were going to meet him at his house," Greene said. "We just went on out to his shop to get the tools. One of his girls came out of the house and said he had passed out."
When Green and the others got inside, Pennington's son, Harold Wayne Pennington, was one of two people performing CPR on his father. The Crossett Fire Department Paramedic Ambulance Service arrived at the house and transported Pennington to Ashley County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The new truck was delivered to the Unity-Frost Prairie Fire Department Thursday, March 18. Sunday's grass fire was its third response to a fire since the delivery.
Funeral services were held Tuesday, March 30 at 2 p.m. at the Second Baptist Church of Crossett, Hwy 169 South, Arkansas.
