The family of a Texas man, who last week was celebrating his wife’s pregnancy, is planning his funeral after he died in a wildfire Monday on his way home from work.
Cade Koch, 25, spoke to his mother, Dana Koch, before leaving work in Canadian to make the 25-mile drive home to Lipscomb, KCBD in Lubbock reported. Dana Koch told the news station she asked her son to stay where he was because of the danger present as wildfires burned more than 300,000 acres near Lipscomb.
The father-to-be was determined to go home to his wife, Sierra, Dana Koch said.
"She had no car, pregnant, scared," Dana Koch told the station. "He said, 'It's my responsibility to go take care of my family.'"
Cade Koch promised to call his mother when he arrived home, but the phone remained silent long after he should have finished the drive. Dana Koch said her husband went to look for their son while she stayed by the phone.
"I get a phone call and it says Cade's cell, and I say, 'Thank God, thank God, he's OK,'" Dana Koch said.
It was not her son’s voice on the other end of the line but that of a sheriff’s deputy. Cade Koch had made it to about five miles from his home.
The Amarillo Globe-News reported that Cade Koch was one of four people killed in the wildfires that blazed through the Texas Panhandle Monday night. Koch died in Lipscomb County and the other three victims, Cody Crockett, Sydney Wallace and Sloan Everett, were killed in Gray County.
Cade Koch's body was found near his abandoned vehicle, Sierra Koch told the Globe-News. He died of smoke inhalation.
His widow has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for her husband's funeral expenses.
"Just last week, he found out he was going to be a daddy," Sierra Koch wrote on the page.
Dana Koch recalled her son’s reaction when he and his wife announced their baby news.
"He had a look on his face of just total happiness, like he was just thrilled about that baby," she told KCBD.
Cade Koch worked as a yard hand and forklift operator at Bartlett's Lumber and Hardware in Canadian. The company posted on Facebook that he was an "excellent employee, friend, husband and soon-to-be father" who would be missed by all.
The GoFundMe page for Sierra and "Baby" Koch raised more than $21,000 of its $30,000 goal in a single day. Sierra Koch wrote that any funds beyond her husband's funeral expenses will go into a fund for the baby's care.
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