Assistant Chief Brian Collins River Oaks Volunteer Fire Department 1999

Brian was born January 28,1964 in Staten Island N.Y. As a very active young man, he was a volunteer firefighter from the age of 16 until his death in February 1999. He was accepted as a Fort Worth firefighter before he was 21, and as an instructor in the USAF reserves at their fire academy, Brian had his nephew Christopher Johnson, now on the Euless, TX fire department, as one of his students.

We last saw Brian on Valentine's Day in 1999 as he came by to show off a Suburban he was buying to have more room for the kids, (his third was on the way). He also said he was taking his wife to dinner that night for Valentines. The next morning, Monday, was very windy and as Brian was about to leave for a dentist appointment, a mutual aid call came out to assist Lake Worth at a church fire. Brian responded with two fellow River Oaks volunteers. His engine company was assigned to do search and rescue, and upon finding no occupants or visible flames, they were given the task of assisting in ventilation of the rear of the building to remove the smoke, little heat being noted. The original cause of the fire, a wooden storage shed at the back of building was totally consumed and the fire was thought to be out. The heavy winds and the ventilation openings below the roofline above the outbuilding had allowed the smoke and heat to accumulate in the attic void. Several things were going on at this time, with several other departments on scene, much of it without communication coordination. Brian, Phillip Dean, and Gary Sanders, his two hosemen, were making their way to the rear of the building down a narrow corridor alongside the sanctuary when the rear roof was vented from the exterior. Another crew opened the ceiling at the front entrance, and on seeing flames in the roof trusses at the rear, inserted a fog stream. The rear of the building collapsed, and a back draft filled the corridor Brian's team was in. The coroner's report said death was instantaneous due to the tremendous heat.

On that morning of February 15, 1999, at 10:55 a.m. Brian's mom, Marie received a call from Mary, Brian's wife, that there was a church in Lake Worth on fire and that the River Oaks department had responded and three firemen were missing. Brian was one of them. As we all met in the River Oaks firehouse that day we knew our lives would never be the same again. Not only did we lose a precious son, his wife lost her husband and his children lost their daddy.

Phillip's only son was born on Saturday during Gary's funeral, and Brian's third child several months later. There is life after death, even one as tragic as Brian experienced, and he would want you to know he was prepared to answer his last bell. This has provided much comfort to us, his parents, knowing Brian was fulfilling his purpose in life as a firefighter. We will always have a vacant spot in our heart with a tremendous ache, but we know Brian died doing what God called him to do. We have been privileged the last several years to participate in the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation weekend in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in October. Our original attendance there did a great deal to help put everything into perspective and provided much comfort, and now each October, we, as Brian's parents, look forward to attending again, prayerfully to provide some comfort, understanding and tears with other parents that are experiencing now what we went through those several years ago.