A husband, a father, a son, a brother, a fire chief, a fire instructor and a friend. That's what Sheridan Park Fire Chief Randy Rider will be remembered as.

Rider passed away suddenly Wednesday, leaving behind his wife and four children.

A county wide service was held in his honor on Saturday, fire departments from across the area attended to remember the fallen hero.

"He meant a lot to a lot of people, his family loved him dearly and he loved them as well. He loved the fire service family, we lost lost a leader," said Sheridan Park Fire Co. Chief Jim Chatham.

Rider, a fourth generation firefighter, also served as instructor with the county's department of Emergency Services and Fire Safety. He helped train and shape firefighters not only in his department but numerous others. The outpouring of support from departments all over at the memorial service was proof of that.

"He taught my firefighter one class with other instructors from the county. He taught me everything I know. He wasn't a chief of my department but he treated me as if I was a member of his department, same with all the other guys in my company," said Dan Mathes, Grand Island Fire Company Second Assistant Chief.

Firefighters are taught to "train their replacement." They say that's exactly what Randy did, preparing young firefighters to be the best, and they plan to honor him by following in his steps.

"Chief Rider was an advocate for training, we're going to continue to train and push to train to make the best firefighters we can. We'll honor him that way, the best way we can honor him is to do what he loved and that's to train firefighters to pass that on to the next generation and the generation after that," said Chatham.