On a Wednesday morning in 2011, just more than 15 years ago, Billy Espiritu lost his beloved Uncle John Dillard, or “UJ” as he was affectionately called by his nephew, nieces, and friends. UJ died inside his apartment in his wheelchair at the Eastowne Village Apartments, high on the hill behind what was then Knoxville Center Mall. The date was February 17, Billy’s sister’s birthday.
The Espiritu family and other family members were there, in the parking lot, hoping for the best as the Knoxville Fire Dept. (KFD) fought the flames in the three-story building with 30 units. In addition to the emotions of the morning, Billy, then 25, made the decision to become a firefighter then and there, closely watching it all. He submitted his application to the KFD the next day.
What could have prompted him to make such a life-changing, major decision during the fire experience after working construction for eight years? In fact, on the morning of the fire, he was driving to a work site in Sevier County when a family member called him about the fire. He turned around and joined the family.
“Standing there and watching…. seeing up close how the KFD responded and how hard they worked to help the victims, including my uncle. It was amazing to me how well they worked together and did their jobs. It was inspirational,” he recalls. “The chaplain talked with our family, and it was impressive how respectful they all were to us, how they genuinely cared. I had never thought about or dreamed of being a firefighter until that day. It was almost instantaneous.”
Firefighters were pushed back by the fire’s intensity as they attempted to rescue Dillard inside his apartment. They did not recover his body until more than four hours later. “I still have some PTSD from that morning and every time I drive by there I look up at those apartments and think of UJ,” Espiritu said.
John Dillard
Dillard was 46 when he died. He was a Marine, and after his military service, he joined the San Diego Police Dept. During his time there, he was struck with a rare and progressive neurodegenerative nerve disorder — Olivopontocerebellar Atrophy (OPCA). After his diagnosis in San Diego, Dillard moved to Knoxville in 2003 and lived in Espiritu’s basement for a year, in what had been Billy’s former bedroom. “We were super close, and I hung out with him quite a bit. He was an amazing jokester, one of the funniest people I’ve ever been around,” Billy says. “We used to spend hours watching South Park on TV. We had some great times together.” Dillard eventually found his own home …. and died in it.
Espiritu describes that day in 2011 as a crushing, brutal, and sad day for the family. “We knew that the chance of him surviving was very, very low. It’s the worst day collectively we’ve been through. He was such a special guy.” Here is a LINK to Dillard’s obituary.
Today, Billy is 41, in his 14th year at KFD and his 10th year at Station 15 in Fountain City. He is a Master Firefighter on the Green Shift. After graduating from the KFD Fire Academy in 2012, he started at Station 9 near the University of Tennessee, then to Station 11 in Whittle Springs and then to Station 15.
The hiring process took almost close to two years for him to be hired on July 2, 2012. There were civil service tests, a background check that could then easily take up to a year to complete, plus in-person interviews, and physical fitness tests. “It was a slow bureaucratic process back then and today it takes nine months,” said KFD Deputy Chief Mark Wilbanks, KFD’s Public Information Officer.
Espiritu was reared in Halls, graduating from Gibbs High School in 2002. He was a three-year starter in football, a linebacker and tight end, and team captain. He turned down scholarship offers and instead started college, planning a career in Elementary Education. But college, he says now, wasn’t for him, so he began working construction.
He and his family live in Powell today. His wife, Amanda, is an MRI technician at Covenant Health, and their three daughters are students at Powell High School. Miliana is 17 and on the Powell basketball team; Lexa is 16; and Makynli is 15 and a Powell High cheerleader.
Espiritu is an Advanced EMT and a Level I and II fire instructor.
Spending time with the family (a lot of ball games) is his major stress relief outlet. His other stress buster is working out seven days a week, honing his physical condition. He bench presses 430 pounds and squats 500 pounds.
But stress in unavoidable in the fire business. Though never injured on the job, he has had one very close call. “We had a fire with a fatality, and I went in with my captain, and we felt heat beneath us and got a thermal imaging camera and saw the fire below us. I was walking closer to the fire and the floor all of a sudden, about 10 feet in front of me, fell through to the basement. I was lucky, really lucky,” he remembers. “It was a pretty dangerous fire.”
About a month ago Engine 15 and Ladder 15 responded to a house fire in Fountain City. He won’t forget it. “There was an older lady on the back porch who had third-degree burns and smoke inhalation. We got her out, but she didn’t survive,” he said. “Then we heard a man screaming inside their garage and we found him and got him to the driveway. It was her adult son. He recovered but did have some burns. The house was a total loss. Any fire with a fatality is tough on all of us.”
And the fire that he ranks as his “scariest and toughest” was the 2017 Gatlinburg fire. “We went up the morning after it started and were there for 24 hours, driving over hotspots on the narrow roads with the cabins and it was really windy,” he said. “We were driving the engine, and at night, with the smoke, it was hard to see. It looked like what I think hell must look like. We drove over power lines with fires burning on the sides of the roads, and sparks were flying everywhere, setting the trees on fire. That was a tough and dangerous 24 hours.”
That February day in 2011 was easily one of the worst days of Espiritu’s life. When asked why he loves his KFD job today, his answer was succinct: “I like helping people on their worst day. I take pride in being a bright spot on somebody’s worst day.”
He’s been there and understands.
Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California, and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email Tom at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.
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