BUFFALO, Iowa-- Buffalo Fire Chief, Terry Adams, died Saturday morning after complications with cancer. Adams spent over forty-five years with the department.
"This was him, it's hard to describe him without the fire department," said Tyler Adams. Tyler is one of four grandkids who followed in Terry's footsteps by becoming a firefighter.
"We have shared him with the community all these years and we were honored to do that," said Brenda Adams.
Losing him has created a hole in the community and his family.
"In November, we would have been married for fifty years and he's been on the fire department for forty eight of those fifty years," said Adams.
Terry and his wife, Brenda live right next door to the station; a place the couple called their second home. His son and four grandkids followed in his footsteps but family went beyond blood. It extended out to the eighteen other guys on the team.
"It just is a big family and Terry was like a dad to all of them they all respect him, respect isn't something given it's earned and Terry has earned it from every guy in this department," said Doug Buchanan.
Respect given to a man, who never stopped putting the community first and because of him the department will keep pushing forward.
"Our pagers aren't going to stop going off, somebody could be hurt right now and we could be leaving, we're going to do it the same way he wouldn't want it any other way," said Tyler.
His firefighting family knows the position will be hard to fill.
"You can't ever replace Terry Adams, you can replace a position but you can't replace the man," said Buchanan.
Even without terry here. His legacy will live on inside these walls.
Terry's funeral is Thursday, October 4 at noon at Runge's Mortuary. His family hopes to honor the man he was as well as the firefighter.