A veteran Baltimore city firefighter died early Tuesday after he was pulled from a blaze that swept through a rowhouse in Greektown, collapsing the second floor and trapping three firefighters inside, authorities said.
Allan Roberts, 40, a father of four children working an extra shift Monday night who was last to be rescued from the burning building, died from smoke inhalation and other injuries, a fire department spokesman said.
Two other firefighters and two civilians who jumped out a second-story window also were injured in the blaze, Chief Kevin Cartwright said.
“It hasn?t clearly sunk in. It will later tonight, tomorrow,” said Capt. David Goldman, a friend of Roberts? for more than a decade who helped deliver the news Tuesday morning to his widow. “If I stop to think about it, that?s when I tear up.”
Firefighters arriving at the Mannasota Avenue station in Northeast Baltimore, where Roberts was assigned to Truck 26, were somber as the news spread hours later. Everyone was in a state of disbelief, firefighter David Fitzpatrick said.
Emergency workers were alerted at about 2:30 a.m. to the fire in the 500 block of South Macon Street in Southeast Baltimore, Cartwright said. Firefighters established a water supply and three of them ? includingRoberts, who arrived at the scene with Engine 41 ? got into the building, Cartwright said.
Loaded down with nearly 100 pounds of equipment as flames licked at their backs and the temperature soared past 1,000 degrees, the firefighters tried to escape, Cartwright said. But they were blocked by the front door, which had apparently shut when the floor caved in.
A rapid intervention team pulled each firefighter free, he said. Firefighter James Butler was discharged from Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center by the afternoon, while firefighter Brandon Maddox remained under treatment. The man and woman who jumped from the second-story window also were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Emergency workers tried to resuscitate Roberts, Cartwright said, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Bayview.
Investigators are not sure what caused the fire or where it began, Cartwright said. Leonard J. Ruck Inc. on Harford Road is handling the funeral arrangements, which were incomplete Tuesday evening.
A 19-year veteran of the department, Roberts received an award in 1994 for rescuing a baby from a crib in a basement fire, according to fire officials.
He leaves behind two daughters, ages 13 and 11, and 5 and an infant, Goldman said.
“So sudden, it?s just shocking,” Goldman said, reflecting on the last extra shift Roberts picked up. “He was doing it for his family.”
Fallen firefighters in regional jurisdictions include:
» Anne Arundel County: Fifteen firefighters countywide, plus three more in Annapolis. On Nov. 12, 1996, when William Chambers suffered a heart attack on a call.
» Baltimore: At least 159 firefighters since the 1800s. Before Tuesday, the death of Eric Schaefer in a 1995 fire was the most recent.
» Baltimore County: Since 1928, 17 careerand 22 volunteer firefighters and personnel. Recently, Connie Bornman and Richard Jones both died of heart attacks in separate incidents in 2004.
» Caroll County: In 1998, Preston Patterson died after a heart attack while working at the scene of a vehicle crash.
» Harford County: In 1999, Roy Crago died after suffering a brain aneurysm while driving to a call.
» Howard County: Two firefighters died in December 1953, when a chimney collapsed in a house fire. In July 1969, two line-of-duty fatalities after an engine was involved in an accident.
» Statewide, one firefighter died in the line of duty in 2005.
Source: County and city officials and U.S. Fire Administration at www.usfa.dhs.gov
