Rodney L. Heard joined the St. Louis Fire Department in 1999 and quickly earned respect, even reverence, from his fellow firefighters. He spent many years working with Gregg Favre on Truck 14-A in midtown St. Louis.
“In 2009 we were second due at an especially bad fire,” Favre wrote on Twitter.
“Middle of the night, heavy fire, multiple people trapped. Rodney was how he always was – calm, focused, ready. The dude was always in position.
“You could always count on him. That he’s going ‘on the wall’ is hard to accept.”
“The wall” Favre referred to is one that carries the name of fallen firefighters. After a lengthy battle with COVID, firefighter Heard died on Tuesday, June 15.
Gregg Favre, who now serves as executive director of the St. Louis Regional Response System, called Heard a “rock solid partner” and “hell of a fireman.”
“A quieter man (especially by city firefighter standards), he was a deeply religious & family-oriented man. He was also a rock solid partner.
“Big, strong & brave. Hell of a fireman. Go in peace Rodney. I’ll miss you big man,” Favre wrote.
Heard’s son had become a firefighter last year. The pandemic saw his graduation ceremony cancelled, and it will be held later this year.
“I know Rodney was looking forward to pinning the badge on his son,” Fire Department Chief Dennis Jenkerson told KSDK.
Heard was working in Support Services, and Jenkerson said, “How things are handled, how things run, what needs to be replaced, what happens if they didn’t work, he was a go-to guy.”
“Rodney never pushed his faith, but it was ever constant,” Favre explained.
“He’d bow his head to pray to himself before supper club and the usually boisterous, joke-making kitchen would calm itself out of respect for a guy who lived his faith.”
Jeff Dill of the Firefighters Behavioral Health Alliance recently told firehouse.com that COVID has damaged firefighters physical and mental health.
“The unknowns of the virus and potential for on-duty exposures—especially early on in the pandemic—also were factors that plagued many firefighters,” he said.
“How can I be infected by a patient? What PPE is effective against COVID? What happens if I get the virus?”
“They were scared that they would get it and bring it home, so a lot of them were quarantining away from their family members,” said Marie Guma, a psychologist who was on the clinical response team following the Parkland, FL, school shooting in 2018.
“They were afraid because their spouse had an underlying health issue or that they would give it to their children.”
Funeral arrangements for Heard were still pending on Wednesday, June 23.