Amherst fire department mourns assistant chief

The Amherst Volunteer Fire Department’s brand-new engine sat outside Clifford Baptist Church waiting to take the man who was instrumental in its design and funding on his final ride.

Public safety officials from Amherst, Lynchburg and surrounding areas flanked the shiny red truck and saluted on Tuesday as the casket of Timothy Wayne Pigg was wheeled from the church, hoisted on top of the truck and strapped down to be carried to the Amherst Cemetery.

Pigg, 42, died of a heart attack on Saturday.

“The only thing he put above the fire department was his family,” said Gary Roakes, Amherst County’s public safety director. “He was always there and anything you asked he provided.

“It was an honor to serve with him.”

Pigg, the assistant fire chief, volunteered for the department for more than 20 years. His son Ryan recently became a full-fledged member of the department. He also is survived by his wife Leigh and his daughters, Morgan and MacKenzie.

“Emergency work is about giving something back, about serving the public,” Roakes said. “He enjoyed doing those things.”

Pigg was a self-employed cabinetmaker as the owner and founder of Premier Wood Technologies Inc. in Lynchburg. He also coached youth soccer.

Flags were lowered to half-staff at the Amherst Fire Department on Tuesday. All four fire bay doors were opened, and each engine was draped with a black sash.

The Amherst County Board of Supervisors, meeting Monday morning to discuss the hiring of a new county administrator, voted to write a resolution honoring Pigg’s accomplishments.

“He gave 150 percent of everything he did,” said one of Pigg’s longtime friends, the supervisors’ vice chairman, Chris Adams, who is a Lynchburg firefighter.

Tom Schrader, of the Amherst Fire Department, said Pigg’s radio call number, FD4, is being retired in his honor. He is the first active-duty Amherst firefighter to die in the department’s 92-year history.

“It will always be Tim Pigg’s number,” Schrader said.

Dick Wilkins said he and Pigg traveled together on many late-night calls, but their friendship went beyond the fire department. When Wilkins broke his hip, it was Pigg who took him to the hospital, who comforted him and who looked after his wife when she couldn’t be by his side because of her own broken leg.

“He loved his family, and he loved all of us,” said Schrader.

Pigg served as an instructor for new firefighters and was deeply involved in the department’s junior firefighter program. In the past few years, Pigg has been one of the top-responding volunteers for the department, Schrader said.

“You do not have to look very far to say good things about Tim Pigg,” Schrader said.

“I’ve seen him do it many times, at auto accidents, trying to comfort people to let them know everything would be all right even when he knew it wouldn’t be.”

The Rev. Michael Fitzgerald said the Pigg and his family were folks that many people turned to for help, for comfort, for food and for friendship.

“In his short 42 years, he made a tremendous impact.”