United States (Utah) - As volunteer fire chief of Plymouth, Craig Starr carried an emergency radio and pager with him, ready to drop everything for a call. On Christmas Eve, the alarm sounded as he left for a dinner at his aunt's house in Portage, his wife Barbara said.

"We didn't have a chance to say anything," she said.

He ran for the door and headed out to help an elderly woman who fell in Fielding, said Plymouth training officer Jerry Estep. Starr was in the ambulance caring for the woman on the way to the hospital when he collapsed.

Barbara, meanwhile, had decided to go ahead and meet him at the dinner when she got a call from one of the other EMTs saying Starr was down.

"I thought maybe he'd fallen and hit his head," she said. Starr apparently suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 44 years old.

Starr had been chief for about five years, after spending 10 years as a volunteer firefighter in Portage, said chief Jeremy Anderson.

"If you needed help, you dialed 911 and he'd come over. It didn't matter what he was doing, he was going," Anderson said. "If it was lightning outside, he'd camp out at the fire station, (looking out for) brush fires."

Along with leading the 15-person fire department, he also volunteered as animal control officer for Plymouth, a town of about 400 people about 11 miles north of Tremonton.

"He just loved it," Barbara Starr said. "He loved serving people, he just loved the thrill

of it, especially the firefighting and helping people."

He also worked a full-time job as a production specialist at ATK. He often responded to calls in the wee hours of the morning, sometimes just an hour before work, she said.

As chief, Starr secured a new brush-fire truck, a mass casualty trailer, new turnout gear and other equipment, replacing the department's "antique" gear, Anderson said.

Starr was buried Wednesday with a full-honors, line-of-duty death procession, an honor guard of 15 firefighters and about 20 trucks. He leaves behind four children -- Angela, Brian, Ryan and Zachary -- and three grandchildren.

Written by The Salt Lake Tribune