RICHARD GOULD
Associated Press

HICKORY, N.C. - Eddie Bolick, 48, of Granite Falls, has been fighting fires since he was 14 years old when he used to tag along with his volunteer firefighting father in Hudson.

Four years after that, he joined the Hickory Fire Department and spent the next 30 years battling the city's blazes until his retirement on Dec. 31.

Never content with the status quo, Bolick attained the rank of captain within nine years of joining the department and was stationed at every Hickory fire station at one time or another, except for the Hickory Airport station where he occasionally filled in from time to time. He retired from Station 7.

Bolick said several factors influenced his decision to step down and walk away, but it all boiled down to family.

His only son, Cade, was born three-and-a-half years ago and Bolick, a single father, is committed to spending as much time as possible with his son following the loss of his own father.

"After my son was born, my dad was diagnosed with cancer," Bolick said.

His father, Bill Bolick, fought liver cancer for three years and died last May.

Bolick had a close relationship with his dad. When he was growing up, he and his father spent a lot of time together at the fire station working on a variety of projects and fundraisers.

"They built their own fire trucks back then, they were always working on something," he said. "He was without a doubt the biggest influence of my life."

They both got interested in fighting fires at about the same time.

"I was in the third grade I was about eight years old when my dad put a swimming pool in and he borrowed a fire hose from the Hudson Volunteer Fire Department to fill it up," Bolick said. "When he took the fire hose back, they talked him into joining the department."

Bolick started going out on fire calls with his father at all hours of the night. At first he sat in his dad's pickup truck and watched the firefighters do their work. Eventually he started sitting in the fire engines and before long he was called into service to carry things that the firefighters needed.

By the time he was 14 years old, he had his own set of fire-resistant turnout gear and was going into burning buildings to fight fires. When he turned 16, he got his driver's license and joined the Hudson Volunteer Fire Department.

"I started driving the trucks and stuff when I was 16 I knew what I wanted to do," Bolick said.

He wanted to be a fireman and set about achieving that goal. He stayed with the Hudson department for two years before applying to the Hickory Fire Department.

"On my 18thbirthday, I applied and got hired four months later," Bolick said. "That was pretty unusual, because they didn't usually hire people that young."

Not satisfied with a single set of skills, Bolick sought additional training.

Two years later, he decided to get involved in law enforcement and joined the Hudson Police Department as a non-paid volunteer reserve officer.

"They sent me to BLET (basic law enforcement training) and paid for it," Bolick said. "I figured if anything happened with the fire department, law enforcement would be a good backup."

He got his emergency medical technician training at about the same time.

"I wanted to know as much about the medical side as I could," Bolick said.

He joined Catawba County EMS as a part-time EMT in 2001.

Though Bolick is still a sworn law enforcement officer, he has been inactive since 1997.

Throughout the years he held a succession of second jobs in addition to being a police officer and an EMT. He also drove an oil truck during the winter months for Bumgarner Oil Company, he worked as a mechanic and gas station attendant and he worked at Carolina Office Furniture.

Bolick's father passed away and now he's taken to looking after his mother.

A fireman's 24-hours-on and 48-hours-off schedule made it tough to care for his family the way he wanted to, so Bolick decided to make a change. After 30 years in the Hickory Fire Department department, he decided to retire.

It wasn't an easy decision.

"Firefighters are like a family we're not there for the money," he said. "You depend on each other to cope with all the tough things you see on the job."

Though he'll miss the comraderie, there are some things he won't miss.

"It feels so good to know that I can go to bed at night and know I'm not going to get called out before the morning," Bolick said.

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