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Baltimore City Fallen Firefighters Honored

This article is a direct street report from our correspondent and has not been edited by the 1st Responder newsroom.

Monday, January 24, 2022 will be remembered as a tragic day for the Baltimore City Fire Department. At 5:53 am, Box Alarm 55-10 was sounded for the reported dwelling fire in the 200 block of S. Stricker Street in the city’s New Southwest/Mount Clare neighborhood, with reports of people possibly trapped. BCFD Engine 14 arrived and reported heavy fire from the 2nd & 3rd floors of a 3 story inside of row dwelling and members of Engine 14 & Truck 23 made entry. Shortly thereafter, an interior collapse occurred trapping 4 firefighters. One firefighter was removed immediately and two more within an hour, each of whom were transported to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center, located approximately 1 mile from the fire scene. A fourth firefighter remained trapped until 4:12 pm, when they were extricated from the rubble of the collapsed building. Two of the three firefighters who were hospitalized, as well as the one removed several hours later, passed away from their injuries. The fourth, Firefighter/EMT John McMaster, remains hospitalized in critical condition. The firefighters who passed away in the Line of Duty are Lt. Paul Butrim, a 16 year veteran assigned to Truck 23 in the city's Pigtown neighborhood, Firefighter Paramedic Kelsey Sadler, a 15 year veteran and Firefighter Paramedic Kenny Lacayo, a 7 year veteran, both assigned to Engine 14 in the Carrollton neighborhood on Hollins Street. Dozens of BCFD members gathered throughout the day at Shock Trauma, and in mid-afternoon a gauntlet honor ceremony was held outside the hospital honoring FF Sadler and FF Lacayo. BCFD Engine 33's apparatus, members of the BCFD Honor Guard and off-duty firefighters from Engine 14 then led a procession, with BCFD members and other supporters walking a half-mile, escorting the fallen firefighter's bodies to the State Medical Examiner's Office a half-mile away.

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MICHAEL SCHWARTZBERGSenior Correspondent

No information from the author.