A nearly 30-year veteran with the Chicago Fire Department died Wednesday morning after a roofing beam fell onto him during a garage blaze early Wednesday in Austin on the West Side.
The Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 confirmed the firefighter, a 54-year-old man who joined the department in 1996, was pronounced dead.
“He was a loyal member doing his job, it’s a dangerous job,” Patrick Cleary, president of Local 2, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Our condolences to his family and co-workers.”
The fire broke out sometime before 5 a.m. in the 5500 block of West Crystal Street and as fire crews battled the fire, the roof of the garage collapsed onto one of the firefighters, Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford said.
“It had to be a roofing beam, there’s nothing there except a few cross beams in the roof so something got him from above,” Langford said.