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Roy Lee Jordan was ready to fight fires at a moment's notice even if that meant jumping out of the very car he was driving and onto a fire truck, his friends and family recall.

Jordan's daughter, Ruby Keeling, remembers riding up Sheriff Road as a child and her father pulling over at the sight of the Chapel Oaks Volunteer Fire Engine and jumping on en route to a blaze. Keeling sat with her mother inside the family car dazed and confused.

"I didn't understand what was going on — I just knew I was hot," Keeling said with a laugh.

But Keeling, of Washington, D.C., later realized her father's commitment to the station, which he had a part in starting more than 60 years ago. The station was the first all-black volunteer station in Prince George's County, according to Mark Brady, spokesman for the county's fire/EMS department.

Jordan, a longtime member of the Chapel Oaks Volunteer Fire department, died Oct. 19 of prostate cancer at age 87. Luther Crutchfield of Poolesville said he and Lester Booth of Lanham are the last living among 11 original founding members.

Born in Emporia, Va., Jordan settled with wife Ruby in Capitol Heights in 1946.

In August of that year, a neighborhood tragedy changed the course of Jordan's life. Jordan came to the rescue of neighbor Leroy Gorham's three daughters, who were trapped inside a burning home. Jordan held onto one of the girl's hands but lost her grip, said Jordan's daughter, Najah Hameed of Clinton. All three perished in the blaze.

"Whenever he relived that story, he was very tearful," Hameed said. "It took the firefighters so long to get there."

The incident prompted several neighborhood men, including Gorham and Jordan, to start the Chapel Oaks Volunteer Fire Department that same year to serve the black community they believed was neglected by majority-white fire companies that failed to respond to their communities, Hameed said.

Jordan rode the Chapel Oaks fire truck for 50 years, and in addition to firefighting, he served as a finance secretary and mechanic and was on the department's board of directors.

Chapel Oaks Volunteer Fire Chief Johnathan Bolden, 36, of Upper Marlboro said being in Jordan's midst was like sitting in on a history lesson and that he was encouraging to the younger staff. Jordan encouraged him to run for chief, a position he has held for eight years, Bolden said.

When Jordan wasn't riding in a fire truck he was behind the wheels of a taxicab. Jordan drove taxicabs in Washington, D.C., from the 1950s until he suffered a stroke in 2004.

Despite his misfortune, his commitment to the station never wavered, Keeling said.

"Even though he was paralyzed and couldn't walk, he would say, ‘Is there a meeting today?'" she said.

Jordan's passing is still fresh to his wife, Ruby. Keeling said she recently saw her mom call Roy's name out on the porch asking him if he wanted anything to eat.

"I loved him 'til the day he died," Ruby Jordan said. "That's why I wouldn't let him go to a nursing home. He told me, ‘If I go to a nursing home, you're going.'"

Jordan's funeral was held Oct. 27 at the First Baptist Church of Deanwood in Washington, D.C. He was buried at Laurel's Maryland National Memorial Park Cemetery.

Jordan is survived by his wife, Ruby L. Jordan; brother, Otto Jordan of Adelphi; and his children, Najah Hameed of Clinton, Anthony Jordan of Fort Washington, Bernard Jordan of Fort Washington, Floyd Jordan of Clinton, Larry Jordan of Capitol Heights, Roy L. Jordan Jr. of Capitol Heights, Ruby Keeling of Washington, D.C., Delores Pinkett of Bryans Road and Evelyn Young of Silver Spring. He is also survived by 20 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. He was predeceased by daughter Gwendolyn Jordan, who died in 1998.

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.