LIVERPOOL -- When Cliff Allan Shafer's pager went off, it didn't matter what he was doing or what time it was: He'd be out the door and on the road to whatever emergency was waiting before you could count to 10.
"It would be the middle of the night, and I'd tell him, Cliff, you have school tomorrow, don't go,'" said his mother, Connie, fighting Tuesday to hold back tears. "But he never listened."
Shafer's nickname -- "Fire Dog" -- couldn't have been more fitting.
The list of fire companies and medical services the Liverpool resident worked for reads like the yellow pages: Community Life Team EMS, Sunbury Community Hospital, Americus Hose Company Ambulance League, Sunbury and Area Services, Elysburg Fire Department, West Shore EMS, Liverpool Fire Company, Port Trevorton Fire Company, Dauntless Hook & Ladder Fire Company EMS, Shamokin Dam Fire Company, Hummels Wharf Fire Company, Reliance Hose Company, Middleburg EMS and Port Royal EMS.
"Fire Dog" stuck, too, because Shafer had a bloodhound-like sense in emergency situations. Fellow EMT Heath Young remembers Shafer's uncanny ability to always know the right course of action.
"One time we had this call -- it was a cardiac arrest for this 17-year-old Sunbury kid," Young said. "Cliff was driving the ambulance. Every single drug (the paramedic) asked him for, Cliff already had open. He wasn't even a paramedic then.
"He just knew."
Shafer died Sunday on his family's farm. He'd been working on his truck when it fell on him. He was 28.
Now his family wants the public to remember him the way his hundreds of firefighter friends do -- as a man passionate about helping others.
"He was born to be an EMT," his mother said. "He was born to do it. It was in his blood. He loved every waking minute of it."
All day Tuesday, dispatchers in seven Central Pennsylvania counties spoke about Shafer over scanner channels.
"Please take a moment to remember Cliff as the dedicated member of our emergency services and pray for his family in their time of need. Your thoughts and prayers for his family will be greatly appreciated and, knowing Cliff, bringing a smile to his face," they reported.
Shafer, were he alive, would almost certainly have been listening -- his mother said he was never too far from a scanner.
Shafer's family has set up a trust fund for his 13-month-old daughter, Kaitlynn. They're hoping to raise enough money for Kaitlynn to be able to follow her own passion someday.
Close family friend Natalie Young said: "Cliff was following his hopes and dreams, and we want Katie to be able to follow her hopes and dreams, too."
Those interested in contributing to Kaitlynn Shafer's trust fund may do so in care of Swineford National Bank, 8413 Route 104, Mount Pleasant Mills.
Anyone wanting to purchase a Cliff Shafer remembrance sticker is asked to contact Natalie Young at 274-2904.
A service will be held for Shafer at 11 a.m. Friday at the Hope United Methodist Church in Port Trevorton.
n E-mail comments to dgessel@dailyitem.com.
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Family: Remember 28-year-old EMT who died in accident
He was passionate about helping others
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