Luke Bryan Stops by to Thank Spring Hill Firefighters

On Friday the Spring Hill Fire Department got a special treat.

Country music star Luke Bryan, wanting to show some gratitude for the department’s efforts in Gatlinburg two weeks ago, stopped in at Tito’s around noon when the crew was having its annual Christmas lunch.

Bryan spent about 45 minutes with the firefighters, posing for pictures and signing autographs. He also autographed a guitar for them to use in a fundraising auction before he went on his way.

“He saw where we had went to Gatlinburg and wanted to say thanks,” Terry Hood, Spring Hill Fire Chief, said.

Ten members of the department spent three days in the first week of December as a part of a larger county task force fighting the brush fires that destroyed more than 2,400 homes and displaced at least 15,000 people in Sevier County.

“My family, our thoughts and prayers go out to them in Gatlinburg and that area,” the superstar told reporters backstage at Charlie Daniels‘ 80th Birthday Volunteer Jam in November. “They’ll rebuild quickly, but you’re just broken-hearted about the loss of life.”

Bryan is not the first country music star the Spring Hill fire crew heard from over its time in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. While they were there, Dolly Parton put up the entire 50-man county task force in her DreamResort.