Cheryl Anselmo can still see Terry DeVore suiting up and describing the voracious brush fire sweeping toward Ordway moments before he left to battle the blaze.

 

Hours later, the Olney Springs town clerk was there when DeVore's mother, Deborah, received a text message from her husband telling her to meet him at their son's home.

 

"We had heard about an emergency vehicle that had fallen off in the bridge collapse, probably right after he left here. I just knew. I put my head down and started praying," Anselmo said today.

 

Deborah DeVore said she went to Terry's home and waited with his wife, Jennifer.

 

"We were in the kitchen, and my oldest son came in," she said. "And then my husband came in, and he said, 'We lost him.' "

 

DeVore, 30, and John Schwartz Jr., 38, both died when the emergency vehicle they were riding in fell from a collapsing bridge. The two corrections officers at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility were members of the Olney Springs Volunteer Fire Department.

 

"Not only did these two fine men serve the public by upholding safety and security in their daily jobs, but they further served their communities by volunteering. That they paid the ultimate price is a tragedy. The DOC family extends our heartfelt condolences to the DeVore and Schwartz families," said Ari Zavaras, Department of Corrections executive director, in a statement.

 

DeVore and his wife are the parents of four children, from 4 to 9 years old. He had served with the fire department for 10 years and recently was elected fire chief.

 

DeVore "was very proud of being the fire chief. He loved the town, and he wanted to make improvements for fire safety," Anselmo said.

 

DeVore's mother is the mayor of Olney Springs, a rural hamlet with a population of about 300. His father, Bruce, also is a volunteer firefighter and rode in another vehicle to battle the inferno that forced the evacuation of nearby Ordway.

 

Bruce DeVore and two other firefighters were following close behind the truck driven by Terry DeVore when the accident happened.

 

"The smoke was so thick and black they couldn't even see the highway," said Deborah DeVore.

 

Suddenly, DeVore's tailights vanished, and Bruce DeVore stopped.

 

A fireball shot into the sky from the ravine below where the vehicle had landed, Deborah DeVore said.

 

Bruce and his crew fought the blaze. "He is hanging in there," Deborah DeVore said of her husband.

 

Deborah DeVore remembers that as a child, her son wanted to be a firefighter or a police officer. "He was never afraid of anything; there was no sense of fear. He loved helping people. He was always making jokes, pulling pranks on people. He just loved life.

 

DeVore's wife, Jennifer, also is a guard at the correctional facility.

Terry DeVore arrived Tuesday at the town municipal building, where the fire department is located, shortly after the fire began.

 

Anselmo and Deborah DeVore were sitting in the clerk's office, when he came in pulling on his gear. "He was ready to do his job," Anselmo said.

 

His death still hasn't sunk in, she added. "I just like him. He has a sense of humor, he is fun to be around."