Lightning turns Taylor into fireman

The Sun Herald, 5/16/7

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, was sleeping soundly early May 4 in his brother’s house in Kiln when a lightning bolt cracked through the night sky.

As the Kiln Volunteer Fire Dept. prepared to battle the fire, Taylor, who had firefighter training from his days in the Coast Guard Reserve, took action. “Give me that hose,” he said he told a firefighter who couldn’t get into the attic easily. The early moves to stop the fire, with a garden hose and then with the tank truck of water and two fire engines from Kiln and Post 58, salvaged the interior of the house.