| Shawna Morrison

shawna.morrison@roanoke.com, 381-1665

A Pulaski firefighter who fought his last blaze just a week ago will be laid to rest today.

Jeffrey Houston "Jeff" Reed, 39, died Monday, three days after he suffered a medical problem on the scene of a fire.

The Pulaski Fire Department was called out to a vacant house on Hogan's Place, off Mount Olivet Road, just before 10 p.m. Thursday. Reed drove a fire engine there and operated the pump, Fire Marshal Chip Hutchinson said.

About 1 a.m. Friday, as crews were close to finishing up, Reed began experiencing a severe headache, Hutchinson said. He was rushed to Pulaski Community Hospital and then transferred to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where doctors determined he had suffered massive strokes as the result of a brain tumor or cyst, friends said.

"He's truly going to be missed," said Sgt. Robbie Kiser of the fire department. Kiser served as Reed's shift sergeant for several years until recently.

Kiser said he saw Reed that morning and that Reed seemed fine, then "goes out on a truck and never comes back," he said. "That's what makes this so hard."

Friends described Reed as a quiet but dedicated firefighter who loved the outdoors.

"He never stayed inside," Kiser said. If Reed wasn't working at the fire department, he said, the husband and father of three was gardening, hunting or fishing. He enjoyed helping his friends with projects, such as carpentry work, and refused to accept any money from them.

When it was Reed's turn to clean the station, he left it spotless, Kiser said.

"You could always count on him," Kiser said. "You couldn't ask for somebody better."

"He had a good sense of humor," Hutchinson said. "But he didn't do a lot of practical jokes and pick on people. He was probably one of the quietest people in the department."

Reed had worked as a paid firefighter since 2002 and as a volunteer for several years before that. His gear still hangs in the fire station.

Reed's death is considering a line-of-duty death, and his funeral, which begins at 11 a.m. today at Stevens Funeral Home, is likely to draw firefighters from across the state.

Reed was the great-grandson of Henry Reed, the namesake of a fiddler's convention happening this weekend in Glen Lyn.