GUNTER, Texas (KTEN) — After more than 20 years helping the city of Gunter, Fire Chief David Gallagher now needs help, too.

"Spent most of his working life in public safety in both the law enforcement side as well as the fire side," said police Chief Jeff Gibson. 

Gallagher has held many different titles over the years including fire marshal.

"Since he was on the fire department, he actually became a certified firefighter, arson investigator, certified peace officer," said Assistant Chief Jon Logan.

For the past 22 years, David Gallagher has been a part of Gunter's fire department.

"He's played a very important role in keeping this fire department rolling and where it is now," said Logan.

"Chief welcomed me in when I on-boarded into the organization," Gibson added. "He has such a significant amount of institutional knowledge that was very helpful for me."

Gallagher has been quietly dealing with severe health issues, and for the past two months, hospital stays  have kept him away from the stationhouse.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Chief Gallagher and his family as he's been experiencing some significant medical challenges," Gibson said.

"He's been in and out of the hospital quite a bit, for extended stays, too," Logan added. "Financially it's going to be difficult with the amount of surgeries he's had."

Logan, who is serving as acting chief, said being a man short is always difficult on a volunteer fire department, but it's really tough when it's a leader who is missing from the team.

"He's always been a really good leader," said Logan. "He's a good person to work under, he's fair, easy to talk to, his door is always open for us."

Gallagher is finally starting to see the end of his medical issues.

"He's on the mend now, he's getting a little better," Logan said. "We're hoping to see him back soon enough, but those medical bills are astronomical at this point."

If you'd like to help Gallagher and his family, you can visit the GoFundMe page that was established to accept donations. About half of the $10,000 goal has now been reached.