JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Everything in firefighter Brian McCluney's locker sits untouched, down to his toothbrush and T-shirts, just as he left them one year ago.
"We just want him to come back into work at eight o'clock tomorrow like he's supposed to," McCluney's district chief at Station 31, Patrick Gouin, said in August of 2019.
But McCluney never did return to Station 31. McCluney and his friend, Justin Walker, a firefighter from Virginia, disappeared during a fishing trip out of Port Canaveral last August.
"Thinking of that night now, I wasn’t worried. I know how Brian is. I knew he was a good boater and he’s just a survivor and he’s just a real smart guy and I wasn’t worried about him that night," Gouin said. "I knew he was out there floating along. He was going to be fine and we were going to find him and in the next couple of days he was going to be back to work."
After a six-day search by land, air and water up and down the eastern seaboard, the Coast Guard suspended the search.
"When they called the search off, I knew they did, and we did, everything we could do and it just wasn't good enough," Gouin said.
Gouin said everyone at the station dealt with McCluney's disappearance differently.
"It has definitely been a different 365 days for sure. You could tell that some of the guys really took it hard and they weren’t going to accept that Brian wasn’t coming back and it took a long time," Gouin said. "We’re used to solving problems and we couldn’t solve that problem no matter how hard we tried."
McCluney was a pivotal part of the fire station, Gouin said, impossible to replace.
"He was just one of those guys who is always going to leave a hole here. He had a big personality, a big, caring, giving personality. He was that kind of person you hope to raise your sons to be," Gouin said.
In the midst of the other challenges this year has brought, Gouin said they think about how McCluney would react.
“If he was here, he’d always take the high road, whether it’s COVID or whatever, whatever you throw at Brian, he always had a smile on his face," Gouin said.
And as long as his uniform still hangs in his locker, Gouin said, McCluney is still at Station 31.
"He brought joy to a lot of people’s lives here and his legacy will always live on. As long as there are firetrucks coming out of this fire station his name will be on the engine, and he’ll be talked about," Gouin said.
According to Gouin, they plan to keep McCluney's locker intact, and everything as he left it.
"I bet you could come back 10 years later and this thing would be untouched," Gouin said.