Former TKVFD firefighter dies in Arkansas home fire

An Ozark County volunteer fire department and local family members are mourning the death of a former volunteer firefighter, Cody Ralston, 28, who died Jan. 8 in a Boone County, Arkansas, structure fire. Ralston, who served with Timber Knob Volunteer Fire Department in 2015 and 2016, was at a house next door when the fire was discovered in a mobile home in Zinc, Arkansas, near Lead Hill. Neighbors told KY3 reporter Caitlin Sinett that when Ralston heard about the house fire, he “came running in to save the dogs inside.”
The dogs belonged to the woman who owned the mobile home that burned, Sinett reported in the story posted on KY3.com. Ralston’s neighbor, Johnny Lawson, told Sinett the woman “had several dogs in there, and none of them survived.”
Ralston died trying to save them.
His son, Isaiah Lee, lives in Ozark County with his mother and stepfather, Kristina and William Hill, and their other children, Serenity Nelson and William Hill.
“Isaiah turned 3 on Sunday, and his dad died on Tuesday,” Dawn Joslin, Isaiah’s grandmother, told the Times Monday. Joslin is president of the Timber Knob VFD board. Kristina Hill is her daughter.
A memorial service for Ralston will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, at the VFW hall on HH Highway in Isabella. Ralston was not serving as a firefighter at the time of his death, so the memorial service will not be an official fire-service memorial, but Isaiah will be presented with a fallen-firefighter purple flag at the event, said Nancy Winslow, Timber Knob VFD chief.
At press time, Ralston’s remains were still in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the body was sent for official identification.
Now, with support from Timber Knob VFD, Kristina Hill has started an effort to raise money to pay for Ralston’s final arrangements, including cremation and a box for his ashes, estimated to cost about $1,300. Those willing to help with that effort may make checks payable to Timber Knob VFD, noting “Ralston” on the memo line, and mail them to TKVFD, P.O. Box 132, Gainesville, MO 65655.
Kristina Hill has also set up a gofundme.com account with a goal of $2,000, with any funds leftover after final expenses to go to Isaiah for things “his dad would normally get him,” she explained on the gofundme site.  
“I am so incredibly proud of our daughter and son-in-law for stepping up and doing the right thing when nobody else would,” Joslin said, referring to the fund-raising effort and adding that Ralston “will always hold a special place in all of our hearts.”
Joslin said she also plans to set up a memorial fund at Century Bank.
Ralston was raised and home-schooled here by his grandparents, former residents Al and Sandy Ralston. Al Ralston has since died, and Sandy Ralston has moved away, Joslin said.
Winslow said Ralston served with her on the Ozark County Honor Guard, which marches in the Hootin an Hollarin  and Christmas parades and also appears at fire service ceremonial functions. He was a “gung-ho” firefighter who was “always ready to go,” she said. “When you met him, you felt like he was a guy who was going to be your friend and would always be there for you. I could always ask him whenever I needed something, and he would say, ‘All right, let’s go.’”
Ralston “loved animals. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he tried to save the dogs in the fire,” Winslow said.  
Joslin agreed. “He didn’t know a strange animal or child,” she said. “If it had been a child in the house, he would have gone in for it just like he did the dogs. That’s just the way he was,” she said.