I posted a few days ago about a young firefighter in our town who had been critically burned attempting to rescue a woman from a fully envolved house fire after she ran back into the house to get her dog. I am sorry to post that he has died from the injuries he sustained in that fire. Brad was only 21 years old, a true hero in every sense of the word. Please keep the Holmes family from PA in your thoughts and prayers. Our small PA town is expecting over 2500 family, friends and fellow firefighters to pay tribute to this young hero tomorrow. R.I.P. Bradley P. Holmes
I'm so sorry to hear that he has past. Unfortunetly he was not the only fire fighter from Penn. to die in the line of duty this week. Nicholas Picozzi Jr leaves behind a wife and two young boys after dying while battling a 3 alarm house fire in upper Chichester.
Here is an article on Brad Holmes
Firehouse.com Home > In The Line Of Duty
Pennsylvania Firefighter Dies from Burns Suffered in Blaze
Funeral information below
Posted: 03-05-2008
Updated: 03-06-2008 03:04:57 PM
Pittsburgh-
A firefighter hurt in the line of duty has died.
Brad Holmes had been in critical condition at UPMC Mercy. He had burns on 75 percent of his body after running into a burning Grove City home on Friday.
Holmes died around 5:15 a.m. Wednesday.
His colleagues have draped an American flag in his locker. They have also posted a memo board where firefighters from around the area are writing words of encouragement.
Phone calls of support are coming in from across the nation. His colleagues are also making sure Holmes' family is taken care of.
Firefighter John Nicklin said, "We're taking turns, running shifts down to stay with the family, be with the family. I mean, they need our support. They need everyone's support, their prayers."
Patricia Andrews-Smith died in the fire when she went back in to save her dog, which had already escaped.
Investigators said a hair dryer left running on a couch sparked the fire.
Here is also part of the story on Nicholas Picozzi Jr
Pennsylvania Firefighter Killed Battling Blaze
Funeral information below
Posted: 03-05-2008
Updated: 03-07-2008 09:45:14 AM
When the Lower Chichester firehouse whistle blew yesterday, Lt. Nicholas Picozzi Jr. was not the only one from his family to respond.
His father, Nicholas Sr., a member of the fire police, and his mother, Nancy, financial secretary for the ladies auxiliary, also turned out.
They were on the scene as the married father of two boys, and a seven-year volunteer with the Lower Chichester Fire Company, was fatally injured while battling a three-alarm house blaze in Upper Chichester.
Picozzi, 35, was taken out of the charred house on a stretcher yesterday morning and rushed to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland.
"The whole family is involved," Lower Chichester Fire Chief Ray Fuller Sr. said yesterday. "That's what makes it hard on us."
Three other firefighters were injured. The cause of the fire is under investigation, officials said, who are awaiting a medical examiner's report for Picozzi's cause of death.
After his son's death, Nicholas Picozzi Sr. was admitted to the hospital as a precaution when he felt ill, said Denis Garvine, a spokesman for the Lower Chichester department.
Picozzi is the second Delaware County firefighter to die on duty in the last five months.
One of the three injured firefighters remained hospitalized. First Assistant Chief Kenny Dawson Jr. from Green Ridge Fire Department in Aston was in fair condition yesterday at the Crozer-Chester burn unit.
Assistant Chief Chris Durbano from Lower Chichester and firefighter Tom Morgan Jr., also of the Green Ridge department, were released from the hospital after treatment.
The firefighters were injured while trying to rescue Picozzi, said David Holland, fire marshal for Upper Chichester.
At the Lower Chichester Municipal Building, fellow firefighters and police recalled their fallen friend as "an all-around nice guy."
He was "a dedicated firefighter," said Sgt. Larry Moore, 44, of the Lower Chichester Police Department, who knew Piccozzi for almost two decades. "You could always guarantee he'd be there if the whistles went off."
Firefighters who knew Picozzi met with crisis-management counselors from Delaware County yesterday afternoon. Flags around lower Delaware County flew at half staff.
More than 100 firefighters from all over the southern part of the county and from Claymont, Del., responded to the three-alarm blaze, which broke out in a two-story, single family home around 8:30 a.m. No one was in the home at the time, fire officials said.
Very sad. God speed for that brave FF, prayers for his family.
