After 27-year-old Wichita firefighter Ty Voth died battling a house fire on Thursday, Micah Hydeman and a few other firefighters texted about some of the funnier moments they had had when Voth first started his career with Manhattan in 2017.
Hydeman, then captain over Voth before the Newton native transferred to Wichita in 2019, chuckled as he recalled a couple of the stories: having Voth talk to students, which terrified Voth, and early in his career when he worked the nozzle during a house fire and his helmet started to melt.
Anyone you talk to about Voth’s firefighting career will mention how much he loved being a firefighter and how bright his future was. That all was evident early on, even when Hydeman wrote Voth’s six-month evaluation.
“He demonstrated a high level of education for continuing education and professional growth. He’s very willing to improve on his knowledge, skills and abilities without hesitation. On his own accord, he will be a great asset for the department, community and the state of Kansas,” Hydeman wrote. “He has demonstrated resistance to public speaking, but with time and experience, he will master the skill of public speaking. I’m very pleased to have Ty on my crew.”
That was echoed by others who worked with Voth when he moved on to Wichita, where he planned to advance his career and fight more fires while being closer to family.
Wichita fire Lt. Chris Molina posted on social media a video of a house fire they battled together. Flames raged through the home as they searched for people. Molina said Voth “was one of the best I’ve ever done it with.”
Friends and coworkers described Voth as fun-loving, ornery, hard-working and an outdoorsman.
Voth had been with the Wichita Fire Department for five years when he collapsed while fighting a house fire on Thursday in Haysville. The cause of death is still under investigation.
More than 150 people, most of them from Wichita and area firefighters dressed in full regalia, partook in a procession Saturday where Voth’s body was brought from the Sedgwick County Forensic Science to Resthaven Mortuary & Gardens of Memory.
Others lined up along the route of the procession to pay their respects.
Voth is survived by his mother, father and three siblings.
Many called Voth a “firefighter’s firefighter.”
Voth knew from a young age that he wanted to be a firefighter, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle.
Growing up
Garrett Schmidt met Voth when they were 5 at Salem United Methodist Church in Newton. They became best friends, bonding over fishing and hunting.
Some of Schmidt’s favorite memories were of he and Voth and their other friends braving the cold for waterfowl hunting. Another big highlight was in high school when they killed 87 doves in one evening. Normally, 15 to 20 would be considered a good hunt.
But that night, they couldn’t reload fast enough.
“We’d always be getting in to trouble outdoors together,” Schmidt said. “He always had a little grin on. You could tell he was out there trying to be ornery.”
Voth and Schmidt graduated from Newton High School in 2015 and went on to different careers, but stayed in touch. Voth would “always send me videos of him busting down doors and putting out fires,” Schmidt said.
“He was a hero, a better friend, definitely died doing what he loved,” Schmidt said.
Starting his career
Voth went on to Hutchinson Community College. During an internship, he helped to try and contain the 2016 Anderson Creek Fire, which was the largest in Kansas history at that time.
Voth made the president’s honor roll at Hutchinson Community College in the spring of 2016. He earned an associate of applied science degree in fire science in May 2017.
He then went right to work for the Manhattan Fire Department, where his uncle, Kyle Voth, is a captain. Ty Voth went directly into a six-week academy, where he impressed his instructor and colleagues.
Battalion Chief Mark Whitehair said Voth was one of the top students he had when he was over training from 2014 to 2019.
“The passion he had to be a firefighter really, really stood out to me. Still to this day, seeing his smile and (thinking about) how much he would pay attention to the instructors and just wanted to gather that knowledge and make himself better,” he said.
Voth was competitive and always pushed to be the best in the class, according to classmate Nicholas Clark. The two also roomed together for a year.
“He was the best of us,” he said. “He was not only physically fit, he was smart.”
Clark vividly remembers one scenario during the academy that involved a dummy.
“(Voth) was screaming at me, ‘We gotta get him through the door,’” Clark recalled, remembering the dummy was caught. “He was like, ‘push’ and we forced him out … he was really aggressive. His prerogative was (to) do the most work in the least amount of time.”
But there was still a lot to learn, like how to talk with third- and fourth-graders at Northview Elementary School. Hydeman said it was the only weakness he found in Voth, so Hydeman pushed Voth to do it, partly to make him better but also because they all got a kick out of it.
“If there was one fear that I knew Ty had, it would be little kids,” Hydeman said, laughing. “If I have a guy and that’s his one flaw, that’s a win every time. I can work with that. Ty, he hit a home run on every other discipline of the job.”
The other lighthearted moment Hydeman said he and the old crew texted about was when Voth worked the nozzle on a house fire. He was close enough that his helmet started to melt.
Voth turned to Hydeman.
“Captain, what do I do?,” Hydeman remembers Voth saying. “I said, ‘get down, get low.’”
It was a learning experience, and a fire he figures Voth never forgot. But, he got better and better. His public speaking improved too, Hydeman said.
Voth helped put out the flames in a November 2018 house fire caused by arson.
“We made an unbelievable stop that preserved evidence that was vital to the prosecution. If we had not done what (we did), than that man probably would have gotten away with arson,” Hydeman said. “Fortunately enough, I had Ty and other guys … we were on top of our game that night.”
Voth kept learning and training.
Captain Drew Taylor was there when Voth advanced enough to be allowed to run the nozzle from inside a house fire. It was one of his first times, if not his first, and possibly the last fire he fought in Manhattan, Taylor said.
Voth hastily put his mask on “charged right into it,” he said.
“He was so excited to get to go on the line and to go inside, do an interior attack on this fire,” Taylor said. “I just remember him just flying and trying to get his mask on and wanted to get in there so bad and was so happy when he came back out.”
Voth contained the fire to the one room.
“He did an awesome job,” Taylor said. “The rest of the house was liveable. They had to do some work. It was everything that you are supposed to do as a fireman. This fire didn’t spread any further than where we found it at.”
Voth left smiling “ear-to-ear,” Taylor said.
“He’s a guy that you can definitely be proud of that he wore the MFD uniform and he wore the Wichita fire uniform,” Taylor said. “He’s just somebody that did an exceptional job in this profession. And kept it to the honor and tradition of what is expected of firefighters.”
Taylor and Hydeman said they knew he would excel in Wichita as well.
“If he wanted to be a chief, he would be a chief,” Hydeman said. “If he wanted to stay a dedicated firefighter on one of the busiest companies in Wichita, he was gonna do it. He never backed down from a challenge.”
Coming closer to home
Wichita fire Lt. Jason Ayala grew close to Voth over a part-time job they did together outside of firefighting.
Ayala said Voth was like family, and losing him cemented one lesson in life he will always cling too, to always make sure you act like every conversation might be your last.
Ayala, Voth and Capt. Daniel Houser went out for pizza and a beer after working their side gig on Wednesday, the day before Voth’s death. It was in celebration of Houser’s birthday.
“And I got to give Ty a hug the last time I spoke with him, which is good,” Ayala said about when they left the pizza place. “I try to hug all my guys when I say bye to them.”
Voth also found a group of firefighters who became like family, going on trips to Boston, Cozumel multiple times and Belize just in February.
A few of them planned to go back to Cozumel later this month.
“We have that common bond of all being firemen,” said Houser, who is 44. “Age is really irrelevant.”
Houser added: “He was a fireman’s fireman. He was a hard worker. He just loved making calls. He loved getting out there and doing it.”
Houser described Voth as “ornery” and a “go-getter” who liked to have fun.
“Liked to hang trash on everybody, but he also took it and he took it well,” Houser said. “Fun to be around.”
Houser said a group of guys got together on Friday night and started talking about memories of Voth. They said, had tragedy not happened, Voth certainly would have bragged to them about the fire he got to fight that they didn’t.
“That’s the ornery side of him,” he said.
It’s not that Voth or any firefighter wants a fire to happen, but, when it does, Voth wanted to be the one working it. Besides the handlebar mustache, Voth’s persona as a firefighter was evident to anyone who met him.
Ashlyn Parrish’s boyfriend, Alexander Schutz, worked the same shift and at the same station as Voth did. They were good friends. She only met Voth a handful of times, but she knew he loved being a firefighter.
“Ty is a dude’s dude,” she said while sitting on the stone wall around Resthaven Mortuary on Saturday, waiting on the procession. “It was almost a personality of his, being a firefighter.”
