PINEVILLE, N.C. — Chris Sheltra just always knew he wanted to be a full-on firefighter, following in his parents' footsteps. While he was still a junior firefighter at that age, his mother Linay said hopping into a suit and saving the day was the future her son wanted.
“He was a 20-year-old hometown all-American boy,” she said in May 2016 as she fondly remembered her son's life. That sentimental statement came just more than a month after Richard Sheltra died while fighting a fire at a Pineville strip mall that year. The young, volunteer member of the Pineville Fire Department suffered smoke inhalation battling the blaze inside a golf store.
April 30, 2021, marked the five-year anniversary of Sheltra's passing. The department he served shared a photo of him in action to their Facebook page, his signature big smile on display. The department says he is sorely missed, and he gave of himself "selflessly and in service of others".
In the wake of his death, the community sprang into action, delivering Richard's favorite chocolate chip cookies to fire stations across the country in his memory. Toward the end of that summer, a 9/11 stair climb honoring fallen firefighters had special meaning for his memory, along with the legacies of two other rescue workers who passed away that year: Capt. Bradley Long of the Newton Fire Department and Josh Warren of the East Lincoln Fire Department. In December 2017, a bridge in Pineville was renamed to honor the 20-year-old Sheltra.
An investigation that wrapped up seven months after Sheltra's death resulted in the fire department being fined $6,100 by the state Department of Labor. Three of those citations were "serious": one for not implementing a specific respiratory protection program, another for not keeping visual or voice contact with Sheltra during the fire, and a third for not having at least two other firefighters outside to provide assistance.