Firefighter laid to rest

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December 23, 2009

37-year volunteer honored

Carrie Stambaugh The Daily Independent Wed Dec 23, 2009, 05:53 PM EST

Ashland — The Cannonsburg Volunteer Fire Department said its final good-byes to one of their oldest and most beloved members Wednesday afternoon.

Ora Kazee, 71, died Saturday night in Boyd Nursing and Rehabilitation Center from complications from mesothelioma, according to firefighters. A pipefitter by trade, Kazee was a founding member of the department he served as a volunteer for 37 years.

Kazee was laid to rest at the Rose Hill Burial Park with full firefighter grave rites.

Cannonsburg’s original 1975 fire engine carried his casket to the burial. The engine was brought back from the Norton Volunteer Fire Department where it is in service for the ceremony.

Firefighters drove the engine from the funeral home in Catlettsburg down I-64 past Cannonsburg Fire Station and on to cemetery, where it passed beneath a large American flag hung from the ladders of two additional fire engines.

Kazee was an engineer for the department but did so much more than that title implies, according to his colleagues, who described him again and again as a “jack of all trades” who could “fix anything.”

“Me and Ora started about the same time,” said Bob Johnson, 59, whose been on the department since it was founded in the early 70s.

“Back when we first started, we weren’t on a tax base and he’d take money out of his own pocket to put gas in the fire trucks,” Johnson recalled.

“He was real dedicated. He was just a real smart man. We’re just going to miss him,” he added tears beginning to well in his eyes on Monday.

“We had about six that started to begin with and Ora was one of them,” said Engineer Bill Fraley, 79.

Up until Kazee became sick last year, Fraley said, he drove the engines and pumped water for the department and performed hundreds of other little mechanical tasks.

“Ora would do things other people couldn’t do. He was a jack-of-all-trades. I don’t care what it was the man could do it. He was a big benefit too because especially mechanically if we had a truck that needed repaired he could do it and do it right. I never seen anything that he wouldn’t tackle. I don’t care what it was he’d tackle it and do it right,” said Fraley.

“He was the guru that could fix anything,” said Cannonsburg Chief Richard Cyrus.

Cyrus said Kazee could always be depended on to make calls even after he retired in 1998 . “He was out there at 69 (years-old) and 70 doing things we were doing. “You couldn’t ask for anyone better,” he said, “We’re going to miss him.”

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.

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