Current Event #3: Volunteer Firefighter

On February 24^th, seven volunteer firefighters were hurt in a wind-fueled fire in a vacant Riverdale Heights house, an incident determined to be arson. Two of them were critically injured when they were engulfed by a blowtorch-like jet of flame that shot out of the house. One of them, Kevin O’toole suffered second and third-degree burns over 50% of his body and underwent 10 operations at Washington Hospital Center.

On Friday he became the last of the seven to be released form the hospital, symbolically meaning the February 24^th call could finally be considered complete. He had been holed up for several month in Room 10-3E in the Burn Step-Down Unit on the hospital’s third floor.

As O’Toole left the hospital in a wheel chair, he found the men of Company 309 and, as tradition dictates, the ladder truck he rode to the fateful fire was waiting for him. The nearly 20 men from company 309 and his parents clapped as O’Toole approached with his hands arms and legs dressed in fresh bandages and an umbrella shielding him from the sun. The passenger seat was covered in a sheet and waiting for him. He grinned and waved as the truck rolled away toward his home at the Bladensburg fire station.

This article was very interesting for me because I had read about the original fire back in February. I have a lot of respect for firefighters, and especially volunteer firefighters who put their lives on the line for no pay, total volunteer. I liked the article because it was very sentimental and caring about the fire fighters condition. It was also fairly well written which made it easier to enjoy. 

Want to read the whole thing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/bladensburg-firefighter-burned-in-feb-released-from-hospital/2012/04/20/gIQAyqJjWT_story.html?hpid=z3