As Clayton Cassidy was laid to rest on Saturday, residents of Cache Creek remembered their fire chief as a community pillar in B.C.'s Interior.
Cassidy, 59, went to check on rising water levels in the early hours of May 5, and was never seen alive again. The chief's truck was found running near Brookside campground later in the day, and while crews searched the area from the ground and the air, his body was not located until May 27.
The chief died as he lived, putting the safety of others before himself.
His service in the small village west of Kamloops drew hundreds of people from Western Canada and the U.S.
First responders formed a silent procession, and Cassidy's brothers – also firefighters – carried his casket with his colleagues.
Mourners were asked to bring their own chairs as nearly twice the village's population gathered to honour the chief.
Those who knew him best remembered him as modest, altruistic and compassionate.
"My dad would be so humbled and absolutely speechless if he could see how many people are here," his son, Kevin, told the crowd.
"I'm having a hard time finding the right words to describe just how much he cared, or how good of a man he was."
Cassidy had been a volunteer firefighter for 30 years, and had a long history of putting others first. He was recognized by the province with a medal of good citizenship for helping residents of the Interior who were displaced by flooding in 2015.
"He was a great guy. He was a leader that led standing beside you," said his friend Wyatt McMurray.
"He'd be the first guy to help out, and the last to go home."
At the end of the service, Cassidy's family members were presented with a B.C. flag.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Sarah MacDonald
