Tar Heel bridge named, dedicated to fallen firefighter nearly 16 years later
Apr. 19—TAR HEEL — On Tuesday morning, the fire station here was filled with both somberness and celebration as family, friends, area and state officials, law enforcement and firefighters gathered to honor Ronald P. Allen Jr.
Allen, 36, was a volunteer firefighter who was killed Sept. 22, 2006, in the line of duty on Hwy. 87 outside Tar Heel while painting a fire hydrant for the Tar Heel Volunteer Fire Department. He joined the fire department as a teenager and remained active even after taking a position as a corrections officer at a state prison.
Tuesday's event officially announced that the bridges spanning Reedy Meadow Swamp on N.C. 87 had been named after Lt. Ronald "Ron" P. Allen Jr., Bladen County's first recorded fallen firefighter.
"In all I do, this is something that is important to me," said Grady Hunt, a board member with the N.C. Board of Transportation. "It's an honor that is long overdue ... to remember the service and life of Lt. Ronald Allen Jr."
Charles Ray Peterson, a member of the Bladen County Board of Commissioners, was touched to be asked to speak to those who gathered.
"I am so humbled to be asked to participate in this," he said. "Firefighter isn't the only role he played in this community. He was a son, a father, husband and detention officer.
"This has been a long process (but) we weren't going to give up," Peterson added. "We had to change gears and go to the legislature to get this done."
He concluded with the verse from Mark 10:45 — "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Allison Allen was only a child when her father was killed in 2006, but she shared fond and heartfelt thoughts about him.
"He may not have been a very big man in stature, but he had the biggest heart," she said. "He was the best father anyone could have asked for.
"My father gave everything he had to his community and he died doing what he loved," she continued. "I know my daddy is looking down with a big grin — he'd be honored to get this bridge named after him."
Before a reception began, a replica of the sign that has been erected at the bridge site was unveiled. Pastor Cameron McGill, who is also a Bladen County commissioner, gave the benediction and sign blessing.
"If you think there are no heroes, then you just don't know where to look," he said. "I doubt anyone riding down 87 who saw a guy about my size basically working in a ditch with his hands ever thought of him as a hero. But he was and is."
McGill referenced an old Alan Jackson s0ng for the occasion, specifically the verse, "Where were you when the world stopped turnin'; That September day?"
Afterward, NCDOT presented Allen's parents, Ron Sr. and Alice, with a small version of the bridge sign in their son's name.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-862-4163 or cvincent@bladenjournal.com.
