West community remembers volunteer firefighter Eddie Hykel one year after tragic death in the line of duty

WEST, Texas (KWTX) - The West community continues to mourn the loss of volunteer firefighter, Eddie Hykel, one year after he was hit and killed in a tragic accident on I-35.

“We’ve missed him so much,” West volunteer firefighter who grew up with Hykel, Robert Payne, said. “Eddie was always faithful at volunteering...he was one of those firemen you could always count on to be there and to contribute greatly to our department, and that’s been sorely missed.”

Hykel was killed March 28, 2023, after the driver of a Peterbilt tractor-trailer traveling on the inside lane “disregarded the traffic control devices and struck the fire truck and two patrol units,” according to DPS.

“Sometime that morning, we got a call about a vehicle on the interstate that was disabled, and so about five of the firemen here responded to that call,” West volunteer firefighter who was close with Hykel, John Hurtick, said. “Then, in a split second, this 18-wheeler came over the hill and...the 18-wheeler just squeezed down through there, clipped the back of our fire truck, and hit the car, and evidently he drove it into Eddie, and he was pinned underneath.”

“It was a tough day,” Payne said. “I believe it was on a Tuesday that this happened. I was in Waco at the time. We got the news, and it was just devastating, absolutely devastating.”

That day they said they lost a dedicated firefighter.

“He was the guy down in the ditch when nobody else would go down there,” Hurtick said.

“He got injured in the explosion back 10 years ago, and bounced back from that,” Muska said. “This time around, it just didn’t work.”

But, they also lost a big part of their community.

“It was a big loss,” former Mayor of West Tommy Muska said. “Some people, it’s just hard to replace. And Eddie was just that type of person.”

Muska said the loss should have never happened.

“It’s tragic, even more so by the fact that it shouldn’t have even happened,” he said. “It was a needless death. People need to take more care on the interstate when there’s a wreck. When you see lights, you need to move over.”

Over the past year, the West Volunteer Fire Department has been working to implement procedures to prevent future accidents.

“We’re trying to take an extra truck out there, getting it further away from the accident, and taking a heavier truck, which for us is our latter truck and parking it a couple of hundred yards from an accident site, maybe even a little bit further than that,” Payne said.

Hurtick said they also plan to have a designated firefighter to control traffic.

However, they are asking drivers to do their part in keeping first responders’ lives safe.

“People need to exercise more control, pay more attention, watch their speed, especially when they see flashing lights,” Payne said.

“If you really wanted to do something to remember Hickle by, if you see something, then move over and just pay more attention because his death, like I said before, it was senseless. It didn’t have to happen.”

For now, the volunteer firefighters remember Hykel daily as his poster hangs at the station.

“He is tremendously missed,” Hurtick said.0″ We have a poster on the wall in our station, and we come in. That’s one of the first things we see. We remember him. We remember the hard work that he did. He was just a man’s man that did everything that needed to be done. It’s been a tremendous loss to us.”

They are working to honor Hykel with memorials at the city park and on I-35. Hurtick said Hykel will also be honored at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in May.

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