Excerpts from the News-Gazette.com:

A 46-year-old Homer man died Wednesday morning, apparently from a medical problem that happened as he drove his pickup truck on Illinois 49, hitting three parked cars.

Champaign County Sheriff’s Lt. Brian Mennenga said John Mike Cummins was taken to the hospital following the accident, which happened about 12:45 a.m. in the heart of Homer. He died at 1:52 a.m. in the emergency department.

Cummins and his passsenger, a fellow firefighter, had been out on a call south of Homer about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Homer Fire Chief Don Happ said Cummins and Cody Shik, 18, left the station ahead of the 10 other firefighters.

“He said he wasn’t feeling well,” said Happ, who knew his friend was recovering from having a blood clot removed from his leg and had been off work from his job for about a month.

Happ and several other firefighters were still at the station when the call came in. “I was the first one there in my chief’s vehicle. As soon as I pulled up, I knew exactly who it was,” Happ said.

Cummins had been on the Homer Fire Department as a firefighter and first responder for about 2 1/2 years but had worked as a volunteer firefighter at other departments since he was about 18.

“He never missed a call, never missed a training. He tried to make it to everything we did. Whatever kind of thing we had going on, whether it was cooking for a fundraiser, he was there,” Happ said.

“He would go out of his way, drop everything to go help somebody. That’s how he was raised, a good family man,” Happ said. “He loved bringing his grandkids to the fire station and spent a lot of time up there with them.”

A funeral with full firefighter honors is being planned.