First fallen Paris Landing firefighter honored
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PARIS, Tenn. — In 1976, on the first structure fire the Paris Landing Fire Department had ever responded to, they lost their first firefighter. “There wasn’t anything in this area that he wouldn’t touch base with and do a little bit of,” Ruth Conger Hart said. Jimmy Conger died in 1976. On Saturday, his family donated a bench and plaque to the Paris Landing Fire Department to remember Conger. “This is just to let you know that people still remember him for what he did, for the services he did for the fire department,” Hart said. “His death and what happened to him will always be with us, and it remains with me on every call that we go on,” Chief Reggie Coles said. Conger was only a member of the fire department for a short period of time before he died in the line of duty. “It was a very devastating blow for the fire department,” Coles said. “The department almost ended before it started because of what happened on the scene that day.” “It reminds me of how short life can be and how to take advantage of every minute,” Shelia Spence said. Conger was a resident of West Tennessee his whole life. His family describes him as a man who was completely selfless. “He helped everybody. He would give anybody the shirt off his back if he ever wore one,” Spence said. Now a bench engraved with the firemen’s prayer guards the flagpoles outside the fire department he once served.
