A longtime volunteer fire chief has died, and his department and the community are mourning the loss.
Keith Phillips, 66, died Thursday after a yearlong battle with sarcoma, according to his obituary.
Phillips was a “proud chief” of the Cairo Volunteer Fire Department, a position he held since 2014.
In total Phillips served 42-plus years as a firefighter with the department, having joined in December 1983, said fellow firefighter Jarrod McGraw, a colleague and friend who has known Phillips since he was a boy.
McGraw said those associated with the fire department are torn up.
“It’s devastating,” he said.
Cairo firefighters, the ladies auxiliary and the department’s board of directors met Thursday night to explain what was happening and all but two attended the meeting called hours earlier, he said.
“You know, it’s just a big gut punch,” McGraw said.
McGraw said Phillips was passionate about the work he did with the fire department.
“It was truly a labor of love for him,” McGraw said.
As fellow firefighters visited him recently, many would ask Phillips before they left if there was anything they could get for him, anything he needs.
McGraw said Phillips’ answer was, “When that pager goes off, I need you to respond.”
And he took the position seriously, dotting his i’s and crossing his t’s–every audit had no findings, McGraw said.
“He ran a tight ship,” McGraw said.
McGraw also relayed a story about how Phillips got his nickname, “99.” He said in the early days of the Cairo Volunteer Fire Department, there was a CB radio station in a local lady’s home, and she broadcast alert information over the CB. To help with communication, each firefighter was given a unit number when they joined the department, McGraw said. Phillips’ was “99.”
Once technology improved and the department moved on from CB radio, firefighters didn’t use the unit numbers anymore, but Phillips kept his—he remained Keith “99” Phillips, McGraw said.
McGraw said Phillips went by a few names, depending on where you knew him from. If it was from church or from work, a person might know him by Keith or Brian. But if someone called him “99,” that person knew him through the fire department.
Visitation will be 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at Tomblinson Funeral Home and again 9 a.m. until a 12 noon funeral service also at the funeral home.
Burial will be in Fairmont Cemetery. McGraw said Phillips’ casket will be carried by a Cairo Volunteer Fire Department truck.
“He will be missed tremendously,” McGraw said.
Read Phillips’ obituary here.
