[10/17/04]A former Vicksburg fire chief was pronounced dead Saturday morning after a two-vehicle wreck officials say was caused by a heart attack.

Edward Patrick Ryan, 78, 311 N. Ridge Drive, was dead on the scene, just inside the city limits, said Warren County Coroner John Thomason.

Fisher Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.

The wreck, at Redbone Road and Belva Drive, was reported at 5:52 a.m.

Thomason said William A. West, no age available, 120 Stockton Drive, was headed west in an 18-wheeler on Redbone Road and saw Ryan’s eastbound 1995 red Toyota truck veer into the westbound lane.

“Mr. West stopped his truck and saw Mr. Ryan slumped over the steering wheel and Mr. Ryan’s truck hit the front of Mr. West’s truck,” Thomason said.

An autopsy at Mississippi Mortuary Services in Pearl showed Ryan died from sudden cardiac death, which is when the heart stops due to hypertensive heart disease or coronary artery disease, Thomason said.

“He was dead before he hit the 18-wheeler,” Thomas said, noting that the cause of death would be ruled as natural rather than accidental.

West was not injured.

A wreck on Sept. 30 occurred after a Utica man died of a heart attack before hitting a Vicksburg Warren School District bus.

The driver of the vehicle was Willie W. Flowers, 57, and no children were on the bus at the time of the wreck.

Ryan was the ninth person to die this year in a wreck on a Warren County road.

Ryan, Vicksburg Fire Department chief from 1963 to 1973, was described by friends and other firefighters as a good man to work for.

“He was like a godfather to us,” said John Trichell, a former firefighter who worked with Ryan for 10 years.

Trichell, who worked for the department for 14 years, now owns barber shops in Vicksburg and Tallulah where Ryan’s picture hangs on the wall.

Trichell said Ryan was the reason he made his home in Vicksburg.

“I was hired by him,” Trichell said. “He was one of the best persons I’ve ever worked for. He was a lovely man.”

And Bill Field, another firefighter who was hired by Ryan, said his former boss was well-liked by the men on the department.

“Pat Ryan was a firefighter’s fire chief; he came up through the ranks,” said Field, who retired from the department six years ago as a battalion chief after 27 years with the department. “Pat was a good man, he was a good chief.”

And another firefighter hired by Ryan, Wilford Cockrell, agreed that he was a good boss.

“You knew when he told you to do something you were supposed to do it and everybody did,” Cockrell said. “He was a very likable fellow.”