KEOKUK, Iowa -- Dave McNally was everywhere in town -- at his morning coffee club, at his son's games, at church. Sometimes, he roamed around the high school, looking for something to fix.
An assistant fire chief for the Keokuk Fire Department, McNally gave his time freely to this close-knit Mississippi River town.His death this week, along with two fellow firefighters and three young children, has cast a pall over the entire city.
"It's Christmas, and the whole thing is practically unthinkable," said Bill Olmsted, who lives about a block from the burned home.
The firefighters died trying to save a mother and her four children from a fire Wednesday morning.
Flags flew at half-staff Thursday at state offices and at the fire station, where a long, black sash hung over the middle of three bay doors in honor of McNally, 48; Jason Bitting, 29; and Nate Tuck, 39. All were married and had children.
"These men are very special," said Bertha Bradley, a local hotel employee, "and their deaths have really touched a lot of people."
So did their lives.
They coached, played guitar with teenagers and volunteered for everything.
"I don't care if it was fixing the roof at the school or if the boiler would break down in the middle of winter, Dave was the first one there," said Roger Downey, McNally's friend. "That was his nature. You didn't have to ask."
McNally, a 25-year veteran, would meet Downey and a handful of other regulars at the same booth, at the same time nearly every morning for coffee at Tipenbud's, a downtown tavern and restaurant.
On Tuesday night, McNally watched the youngest of his three children score 18 points in a high school basketball game.
The next morning, the men became the first firefighters to die in the line of duty in this town of about 12,400.
Fire Chief Mark Wessel said the three were caught in a "flashover." The phenomenon occurs when a fire causes everything in a room to become so hot that a flammable gas is produced, which can ignite instantaneously, with temperatures reaching 1,500 degrees.
Other firefighters were able to get year-old twins Robert and Rebecca Cooper out of the building, but they died soon after. Jessica McFarland, 7, was trapped on the second floor and died there along with two of the firefighters.
The children's mother, Melissa Cooper, 26, managed to escape along with another child, Jacob McFarland, 4. They were treated for smoke inhalation and released late Wednesday.
Cooper told the Des Moines Register that the three men "will always be remembered as lifesavers."
"I want the firemen's families to know that those firefighters are angels and I greatly appreciate that they risked their lives to save my babies," she said.
State fire investigators combed through the charred house on Thursday. The cause of the fire has not been established.