BLUE MOUND - William Miller "had a bigger heart than any man I know," his former fire chief said Saturday.

That sort of sentiment drew an abundance of family, friends, and fire and police personnel to a memorial Saturday for the 24-year-old firefighter, who died Monday after his fire engine crashed.

The line of mourners stretched out the door of the Dawson & Wikoff Funeral Home on Illinois 48. Emergency and police vehicles from nearby departments lined the parking lot, which could not contain the number of cars that showed up for the evening ceremony.

John Holmgren, chief of the Blue Mound Countryside Fire Protection District, said Miller was well-liked among his fellow firefighters.

"He was a friend to everybody," Holmgren said. "He had no enemies and hated conflict of any kind."

It was Holmgren who noted his colleague's big-hearted nature.

The chief said Miller was ex ;tremely committed to the town's volunteer fire department.

"From the moment he joined the fire department, he put everything into it that he could," Holmgren said. "He wanted to be the best at it."

Blue Mound firefighter Dustin Clark, a friend of Miller's, described him as somebody who valued his friends and family and whom he became friends with immediately when they first met five years ago.

"He loved helping people," Clark said. "He always put everyone else's needs before his own, and that showed as a friend, as a family member and as a firefighter."

Miller's fire engine crashed Monday night at Pleasant View and Mosquito Creek roads during a training exercise. The Macon County Sheriff Office reported Miller appeared to have applied brakes at the intersection of the two roads but lost control of the vehicle, causing it to flip over.

Police said firefighter cadet Jacob Hunt, 16, was aboard the fire engine during the accident. Hunt was injured in the crash and taken to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

Miller was pronounced dead after being airlifted to St. John's Hospital in Springfield. An autopsy report by the Sangamon County Coroner's Office revealed Miller died from a pre-existing medical condition while involved in a vehicle rollover. An inquest is pending.

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