“We will take it from here.”
That message was affixed to the sign at the Circle Fire Department on Saturday afternoon, as the station paid tribute to volunteer firefighters George Chad Satcher, 53, Landon Cale Bodie, 18, who were killed the previous morning when a tree fell on their fire engine en route to a structure fire near Batesburg-Leesville.
Staff at the volunteer-manned fire station in rural Saluda County were present but off duty Saturday, as community members came by to offer support, hugging firefighters at the station through car windows. An engine from the neighboring Lexington County Fire Service was on hand, stepping in to take any calls that came through.
Neither the firefighters at the station nor anyone else will be speaking publicly about the tragedy for a few more days, Saluda County Fire Service Coordinator Mark Lybrand told reporters, emphasizing that they are still reeling from the loss. He said Satcher and Bodie were, to his knowledge, the first two firefighters in the history of the department to be lost in the line of duty.
“We would like to reach out to the community and State for the overwhelming support during this extremely challenging time,” the department posted to Facebook. “We lost two dedicated members who loved their communities and neighbors enough to make the ultimate sacrifice.”
The department said funeral arrangements for the fallen firefighters are pending.
The Saluda County community is grieving the loss of the firefighters as it, like many places in the state, struggles to recover from the impacts of Hurricane Helene, the storm that felled the tree that took the lives of Satcher and Bodie and two other county residents who died in their homes. Downtown Saluda sat dark and largely vacant Saturday afternoon, with awnings and signs sitting ripped down along the sidewalk on Main Street. As of 3:30 p.m., Dominion Energy reported that out of 6,128 customers in the county, 6,001 were without power.
Downed trees still partially blocked rugged Beulah Road, along which the tree fell on Satcher and Bodie’s fire truck. At the crash site, tree trunks and limbs had been cut and moved off to the side, while glass and small pieces of debris from the engine still sat in the roadway.
But folks around the community remained resilient. One woman sitting in the parking lot at the Hopps gas station next door to the Circle Fire Department proudly let people know that the nearby Dollar Tree was giving away free ice.
“Everybody’s pulling together,” she said from her truck.
Inside the gas station’s dark and powerless store, owner Gunvant Patel told customers he was open less to sell perishable items that would go bad than to be there for people looking for items to get by as the area recovers. He turned quickly thereafter to check out a man who left with his arms full of bottled water.
Patel said firefighters and EMS personnel from the stations that flank the gas station come in frequently and that he talks with many of them. He said Satcher would come by the store often to grab a coffee and chat.
“He buys diesel from me, and he buys some food,” Patel said. “He was a real nice guy.”
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