Farmland community holds procession to welcome hometown hero
FARMLAND, Ind. (WISH) — A young firefighter who miraculously survived a tragic accident in Farmland is finally home.
On Friday, the community welcomed the hometown hero with a grand procession. With cheers and a whole lot of smiles, the Farmland community welcomed back firefighter Zachary Lee.
A procession took him through the streets of Farmland, with a final stop at his family’s home.
“The Lord has been with us. It’s just amazing. It’s just people putting their arms around you, and it’s just fantastic,” said Troy Williamson, Lee’s grandfather.
It was a sigh of relief.
Lee was gone for several months recovering since a tragic accident on May 25 that ultimately took the life of Kyle Osgood, one of Lee’s best friends and the assistant fire chief.
According to the Farmland Fire Department, the firefighters were responding to a barn fire when a 2000-gallon fire tanker rolled over on top of them.
“I still dream or nightmare. I think there are still people who are processing it and it hasn’t really matured in their own heads. I mean, it was a very bad day for us,” said Melvin Nott, chief of the Farmland Fire Department.
Lee was flown to Fort Wayne while fighting for his life. In August, he was taken to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, Illinois, where he spent countless hours recovering after losing an arm.
His grandfather says he’s a fighter.
“There were things that he had wrong with him that they were learning on new things because they had never operated on somebody that had had those injuries that had lived before, so they said they were experimenting too, and so far, that’s probably helped other people already,” said Williamson.
“It’s probably been one of the hardest things that we’ve had to go through, but also recently the most amazing thing to watch him get so much better and be able to pretty much get back to normal after all of that,” said Sierra Newton, Lee’s sister.
Troy says his grandson has plans to continue serving his community at the Farmland Fire Department, despite what happened.
“Of course, his dad was on the fire department, and then me as a grandpa, and his great grandfather, and his sister is even on the fire department here, and he wanted to start coming down and got involved, and then he just got hooked just like everybody else does,” said Williamson
He says the community supported the family in any way they could, and together, the fire department family has created an inseparable bond that will last a lifetime.
”Even though he didn’t get to see it first hand, and his mom probably didn’t as much and his dad because they didn’t come home very much, but to be able to see that we really did support him even though we couldn’t be beside him the whole time,” said Nott
Overall, Lee’s family says they are thankful for the overwhelming support from the community.