Updates with details provided by US Fire Administration
Aug. 15-- A small volunteer fire department in Alabama is mourning one of its own who died following a response call.
West Blocton fire Lt. Dale "Clint" Hardemon, 58, had returned to the station with his crew after working a trailer fire on the morning of Aug. 13 and was speaking with Chief Joe McCool when he suddenly began feeling lightheaded.
"He ran the truck just like he always does and everything seemed fine," Hardemon's son CJ, another West Blocton firefighter, told WBRC.
A few minutes after the elder Hardemon collapsed, Chief McCool and a West Blocton police officer revived him, but he was later pronounced dead of a heart attack at a local hospital. The US Fire Administration announced Hardemon's passing as a line-of-duty death on Monday.
His son, who is the department's assistant chief, told the news station that it doesn't seem real.
"We was on the same fire together working as a team. Father and son. It's just hard," CJ Hardemon said.
CJ says his service was the reason his dad joined the department five years ago, adding that he always wanted to keep a check on his son.
"We would get a call and I would tell him, 'Hey, I've got to go on a call real quick.' He'd say, 'Alright, love you son.' So I'd go to the call and when I get there he's there. You know, he would follow me to make sure I was OK."
CJ told WBRC his dad loved serving and that his family and grandchildren were his whole world.
"Very loving and caring. Did anything he could for anybody. Did anything for his community. Just want them to know how great of a man he was (and) that he loved helping people."
The family has said they'd like any donations to be made in Clint's memory to the West Blocton Fire Department.
