“The firefighters told me that going back in would have been suicide, but you can play it in your head a thousand times, and it comes out a different way each time,” Seguin said.

“Vernon was a great guy.”

He said they’d been friends for more than 30 years.

“They were like another mom and dad to me. Their kids were like brothers and sisters (to us).”

Mr. Hoover moved to the region from Florida when he was in the U.S. Air Force. He came to the Plattsburgh Air Force Base and eventually met Sandra.

“They’ve been married for years,” Seguin said.

Locally, Mr. Hoover had a reputation of being genial and someone that could be counted on.

Bob Haywood, Town of Black Brook highway superintendent, said that the nearly two decades he spent working with Mr. Hoover at Lake Placid Granite Company and the Highway Department were memorable.

“He was always very dependable. One of those guys that you can really count on, that you can call in the middle of a snowstorm, and they’ll be there.”

Mr. Hoover was a Town of Black Brook employee for about 15 years, where he’d worked as foreman to Haywood.

Even after he retired about five years ago, he’d still drop by to talk.

“Vernon would stop by here quite a bit after retirement,” Haywood said.

They’d cover a range of topics, but Mr. Hoover always liked to know what projects the Highway Department was working on.

“Paving. He really enjoyed paving,” Haywood said. “When we were working on the roads, he was working the paver.”

Aside from work, Mr. Hoover was also known as an avid fisherman and hunter in the region, until his health made getting around more difficult.