Officials said the incident occurred Thursday during brushfire suppression operations on the fifth wildfire to break out in the region within a week.
HILLIARD, Florida — A volunteer firefighter died in the line of duty Thursday while battling a brush fire in Florida.
James “Kevin” Crews, 59, of the Hilliard Volunteer Fire Department experienced a medical emergency Thursday while fighting the Old Dixie Highway fire, town officials in Hilliard announced on Friday.
“Kevin was the epitome of courage and dedication,” Hilliard Volunteer Fire Chief Jerry Johnson said in a statement. “His sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
The incident occurred during brushfire suppression operations on the fifth wildfire to break out in the Hilliard area of Nassau County during the past week.
Life-saving measures were immediately provided by on-scene firefighters.
Crews was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died, town officials said.
The Town of Hilliard and Hilliard Volunteer Fire Department are working closely with Nassau County Sheriff’s Office and state investigative agencies to determine the circumstances surrounding this incident, officials said.
Crews began his career as a firefighter in Ware County, Georgia. He was a two-year veteran of Hilliard VFD assigned to Station 4.
Town officials said he is remembered by colleagues as a dedicated public servant, well respected by all firefighters, and loved by his community.
More than 120 homes have been destroyed in southeast Georgia and thousands more remain threatened by two large blazes, one of which investigators suspect was sparked by a foil balloon touching power lines, officials said Friday.
An unusually large number of wildfires are burning this spring across the Southeast, where scientists say the threat of fire has been amplified by a combination of extreme drought, gusty winds, climate change and dead trees still littering some forests after being toppled by Hurricane Helene in 2024.
‘No way to stop this fire’ without soaking rain
After getting a firsthand look at firefighting efforts in southeast Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp told reporters that state officials believe 87 homes burned in rural Brantley County this week are the most destroyed by a single wildfire in the state’s history.
An additional 35 homes have been lost to a larger fire burning in sparsely populated Clinch and Echols counties near the Florida state line, Kemp said. That blaze has burned about 50 square miles (129 square kilometers), an area twice the size of Manhattan.
Kemp said officials suspect the Brantley County was sparked by a foil party balloon that touched live power lines, creating an electrical arc that ignited the ground. He said investigators suspect the larger fire started with a man welding a gate outside.
Spread across nearly 12 square miles (31 square kilometers) and still growing, the Brantley County blaze was 15% contained Friday, the Georgia Forestry Commission said. An estimated 4,000 homes in the county were under evacuation orders Friday, said commission spokesperson Seth Hawkins.
“There’s no way to stop this fire,” Kemp said. “They’re having to contain the flanks and the back of it and then, hopefully, we get a change in the weather.”
No fire deaths or injuries have been reported in Georgia.
Firefighters are battling more than 150 other wildfires in Georgia and Florida that have sent smoky haze into places far from the flames, triggering air quality warnings for some cities.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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