Friday, March 29, 2024

Open house set Saturday for fallen CVFD firefighter

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The Cresson Volunteer Fire Department (CVFD) will be hosting an open house ceremony at the training/meeting facility located at 9401 E. U.S. Highway 377 from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday in honor of fallen firefighter Diana Jones.

Jones decided to join the Cresson Volunteer Fire Department as her son, Ian Shelly, was a captain there. Every year, Jones and Shelly would head out west to fight wildfires as contract workers for the U.S. Forest Service.

On Aug. 31, 2020, Jones and Shelly were deployed to help fight one of the largest wildfires in California to the northwest of Sacramento.

Unfortunately, the wind conditions made the area dangerous and their team was ordered to retreat.

According to Cresson VFD Fire Chief Ron Becker, Jones was driving the firetruck, but the fire was restricting visibility of the road, so one of the crew members began to walk in front of the truck to lead Jones down the roadway. However, the crew member tripped, as the smoke and the heat drove him down to his knees.

Jones lost her life when — for an unknown reason — she put the truck in reverse, causing the firetruck to fall off the mountain road, crashing 15 feet down into a ravine and catching fire.

She had been working at the CVFD for five years prior to her death.

The training/meeting facility at the Cresson Volunteer Fire Department is now named after Jones and is called the Diana Jones Memorial Training Center.

The decision to dedicate the building to Jones is even more appropriate because she had turned the building into her personal project, Becker noted.

“The fire department had purchased the old Church of Christ building in Cresson to use for our training meeting center and Diana had taken that old building under her wing,” Becker said. “She had repainted the interior, she would wax and scrub the hardwood floors. She just kind of decided that she was going to adopt that old building. When she was lost, our department voted to rename that building in her memory.”

The department chose to take the donations received in her memory and install an electronic message board sign, identifying the building.

Also, the open house will serve as a gesture to thank those who have donated funds, labor, equipment and materials to make Jones’ memorial sign a reality.

“She was well trained. She was knowledgeable. She was a good EMT, a good firefighter,” Becker said of Jones. “She wasn't flashy. She was a little on the quiet side, but she was dedicated and she was dependable. She was always looking for opportunities to help somebody else out. We miss her.”