2 NC firefighters died as heroes after Helene trying to rescue 11 people from a landslide
Tony Garrison and nephew Brandon Ruppe died as heroes when Helene swept through North Carolina, Garrison’s fellow firefighters said.
Garrison was a 51-year-old battalion chief at Fairview Volunteer Fire Department, about 11 miles southeast of Asheville.
He and Ruppe, 37, were trying to rescue 11 people from a mudslide in Fairview on Sept. 27 when flooding caused a second landslide that killed Garrison, Ruppe and all 11 people trapped, Firehouse magazine reported.
Garrison ”valiantly and selflessly“ served his community throughout his career, Garren Creek Fire District Chief Wade Wright said in a media statement at the time. Garrison also served with the Garren Creek Volunteer Fire Department.
Ruppe was beside his uncle “bravely assisting to save their neighbors when the mudslide hit,” Wright said.
Ruppe, a Buncombe County native, worked in sales for Goodwill Industries and had a sense of humor that made everyone laugh, Mountain Express reported.
“You always had a way of making me smile,” a friend said on Ruppe’s online tribute page, where another woman remembered him as “the sweetest young man.”
Helping others defined his life, friends and family said
Born in Asheville, Garrison most loved time with his wife of 28 years, Mary Chantelle Garrison, and their daughter and son, friends, family and colleagues said. He enjoyed woodworking and fishing, yet helping others defined his life, they said.
“Tony always put the needs of others in front of himself,” longtime friend Vince Carter, chief of the Reynolds Volunteer Fire Department, told Asheville station WLOS.
His death drew widespread attention, on national news broadcasts and in People magazine and other publications. A USA Today video documented the procession of nearly 40 police cars, fire trucks and EMS vehicles that memorialized Garrison along Charlotte Highway in Fairview.
On a Dec. 6 stop in Fairview, Vice President-elect JD Vance met Garrison’s son, daughter, wife and mother. “Just the best people in the world,” Vance said at a news conference, according to a WLOS video.
“And when I think about Western North Carolina, that’s who represents this state and the people of the Appalachian region of North Carolina so well — a firefighter willing to risk his life,” Vance said, referring to Tony Garrison.
At Garrison’s funeral Oct. 23 in Fletcher, Dana McKim said, “No greater love do we have than to lay down our lives for our friends.” McKim serves as chaplain of the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
“This servant of God right here knew that,” McKim told the gathering at Trinity of Fairview church. ”It was deeply embedded in his heart to do whatever was necessary to help a brother or sister in need.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "2 NC firefighters died as heroes after Helene trying to rescue 11 people from a landslide."