Connections matter. Bonds are developed. Ties that bind. In families and with friends. Teamwork happens. Your social circles are connections. Also, at work. Shared hobbies. Maybe sports. Or at church.

Today’s Our Town Hero is about a connection between a church and a fire department and a young firefighter and a pastor. They are our “Co-Heroes” – Rural Metro Firefighter Logan Bagwell and Rev. Nick Swarthout, Groups & Community Outreach pastor at Grace Baptist Church on Oak Ridge Highway.

Bagwell and the Bagwell family are all members of Grace Baptist. Logan is only 23, but in his ninth year at Rural Metro – five years full-time and four years as an Explorer. The Bagwell name is a familiar one. Logan’s father is Capt. Jeff Bagwell, a 37-year Rural Metro veteran and its Public Information Officer.

Logan, a 2021 graduate of Grace Christian Academy, is an Engineer/Firefighter and Advanced EMT at Station 30 in Halls today.

Swarthout, 42, joined Grace in 2024 and is a former officer for the University of Tennessee Police Dept. He’s also an Army veteran who served in Iraq. That’s also a piece of this story. When he began at Grace, the church described him with these words: “Nick has a passion for evangelism and a heart for Knox County. He will be connecting our Grace groups to service opportunities within our local community. We are excited to see how God will use this ministry to share the gospel with Knox County.”

Bagwell is a first responder. Smarthout has been a responder with a military background.

More connections! Grace groups. Fire station project.

About a year ago, Logan met with Swarthout about buying a trailer from him to use in his part-time grass-cutting jobs. As that conversation continued it morphed into talk about a fire station that needs sprucing up its interior. “We were having small group meetings on Sundays at the station of first responders and some military folks,” Logan says.

“Not long after our meeting (this was in June) I got a random text from Nick and he was asking what I needed for the firehall project,” Logan recalls. “Nothing, I guess. I didn’t know what he was asking me at first. So, we had lunch together, and I explained it and what we did need for the project. He said he thought about me and said Grace wanted to bless the fire station and he had some money in his budget that we could use.”

Most fire stations have what some call a “day room” or a TV room where firefighters relax between calls and talk about calls they’ve worked on. The rooms are typically adjacent to the station’s kitchen. “This day room was in terrible shape. It’s an old station and the carpet was filthy, and it needed a new floor, new blinds, and the walls needed painting,” Logan explained to Smarthout.

So Smarthout and Grace stepped up to help. “Our first responders and the military are huge resources that we value for the community and we wanted to help,” he said. “We want to build trust and relationships with the local fire departments and helping when we can. They are our comrades and they are all children of God. We respect their jobs and they carry weight around we don’t see but weight they see and live with doing their jobs. If we can help we will.”

Swarthout found $3,000 in his community outreach budget and called on two Grace Groups that do construction renovation work. Logan coordinated with the Station 30 staff, and on the weekend of July 11-12, he says they had around 12 different people who worked part of both days and got the job done.

“We started at 7 a.m. on the 11th with 12 of us working and had to move all of the furniture out of the way, and then they started ripping up the carpet. It was bad and worse than we thought. Then a few people started painting the walls,” Logan said. “They got the new floors in, got all of the paint work done (40 gallons worth) and then we installed the new blinds on 11 windows. It’s incredible.”

During the work the station had a few alarm calls to run but nothing major, Bagwell said.

It took until Sunday afternoon on the 12th to finish the job.

The Grace team included six volunteers — Josh and Heather Morris, Justine and Josh Allen, Mike Fursa and Joanna Brooks. And from Rural Metro were the two Bagwell’s plus Nick Johnston, Asst. Chief Richard Herrell, and firefighter Benjamin Tatham.

“On both days we could feel God working through us and in us. I never thought it would happen so fast. It was incredible,” Logan said. “It was a lot of work. Two 12-hour days of work, and I said to myself on Sunday – ‘Dang, what just happened here?’ We cleaned it all up on Sunday, and then the fire station was blessed by the church. It’s our church giving to us.  Grace has also helped Karns Fire as well. I don’t know how to thank the church. The volunteers worked hard for us, plus the blessing that the church has given to us.”

Smarthout said he called new Karns Fire chief Herman Lathers and asked what they needed. “He said they needed some help with their budgeting process, so we’ve given them the Financial Peace University 7-week program done by Dave Ramsey to help them out,” he explained.

Logan did add this: “…. It looks a million times better now, and we’re all admiring the work everybody did. Even the chief (Jeff Devlin) came out to see it, and he liked it.”

Connections really do matter!

Tom King is a weekly contributor to KnoxTNToday, where he writes the column Our Town Hero, honoring the service of our first responders. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email Tom using the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562. Enjoyed this article?

Read more Our Town Hero columns by Tom King, sponsored by Aubrey’s Restaurants.

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