Victim in Urbana fire worked hard to ‘make a life for his daughter’

The man who died in an Urbana house fire last week was a hard worker who prioritized his family, his father said this week.

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Tyler Jacobson, 32, was identified by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office as the man who died in a residential fire Jan. 8.

Jacobson was the only person home when a fire started at the house he rented from his dad at 103 Main St. East. First responders were called to the scene at 10:44 p.m. They found Jacobson dead.

Jacobson shared the home with his 8-year-old daughter, who was away with a friend at the time of the fire. The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing, according to the sheriff’s office.

Tyler’s dad, John Jacobson, said his son’s greatest priority was his family.

“He worked all over. He worked with the Local 89 as an iron worker. He worked at Novak Fencing. He had side gigs doing firewood,” John said. “He was always just trying to make any extra little money to get by on and make a life for his daughter.”

Tyler was reliable, when it came to his own responsibilities and in his dedication to helping others, John said. There have been times when he fell behind paying rent because of unexpected medical expenses and other things, but John said Tyler always found a way to pay John back, and he always managed to make time to support others who needed him.

“We knew if he wasn’t there, he’d be there later because he was helping somebody else out. He would drop what he was doing to go help somebody,” John said, adding that many community members have reached out to the family since Tyler’s death to share stores about how he impacted them.

Tyler’s hobbies included fishing and hunting, and finding any excuse to be outdoors with family members. He also loved kids and used to work for REM Iowa, which provides services to adults and children with development and intellectual disabilities.

“He’d take time to slow down and help them with anything,” John said. “He worried about everybody else before himself.”

John said he found out about the fire last week when Tyler’s neighbors called to tell him the house was burning. John, who lives in Center Point, rushed to the house and called every place he could think of that Tyler might be.

“After not being able to reach anybody, we knew he was in the house,” John said. “Thank God his daughter was with a friend.”

A GoFundMe page has been set up on behalf of Tyler’s daughter, who is now living with her mother. The money from the fundraiser will be put into an account to help meet the girl’s needs, the page states. As of Thursday afternoon, it had raised $3,525.

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