WILMINGTON, Del. — Two longtime firefighters were killed when a floor in a rowhouse collapsed during an intense fire early Saturday.
Four others were injured in what Chief Anthony Goode called "a very tragic day for the Wilmington Fire Department." The incident is the first death of a city firefighter in almost two decades.
Those killed Saturday were identified as Lt. Christopher Leach, 41, a 14-year veteran, and Senior Firefighter Jerry Fickes, 51, a 13-year veteran.
Both men had children and families, Goode said at a press conference Saturday. He did not take follow-up questions.
Two firefighters also were transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pa., with critical injuries. Two others were treated at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del.
The fire was reported at 2:54 a.m. ET at a Canby Park neighborhood of brick rowhouses.
Firefighters arrived to find heavy fire from the back of the building. At 3:14 a.m., one or more firefighters became trapped, officials said, and the first floor collapsed.
Dozens of firefighters responded and searched for the firefighters, who were in the basement, officials said. They also used ladders to access the upper story of the rowhouse, where the fire burned through the roof and sent flames and thick smoke into the night sky.
Goode said it's not clear what caused the fire and the incident is under investigation. The residents of the home were able to escape.
"This is a tragic situation," Wilmington Mayor Dennis P. Williams said. "My heart is heavy. So much pain right now."
Missy Napier lived in the home with her five children.
"We ran out of the house with no clothes, in basically nothing," she said between tears Saturday morning.
She said they awoke to find smoke and then scrambled to escape.
"We started hollering, 'Get out of the house, get out of the house,'" she said. "We ran out back but the smoke was so hot. Not the fire but the smoke was burning your face."
"We didn't have no water to try and put it out," she said. "Everybody's OK, but emotionally we're struggling."
Napier's mother, Debbie Napier, suspects firefighters thought someone was trapped, "but everybody got out."
"It's breaking her heart that they passed away in her house," she said.
Neighbors on Saturday comforted one another on the narrow one-way street, developed as part of the Canby Park Estates subdivision.
Shane Henry, who lives with his fiancé in the basement of a row house next door to the home that burned, said smoke enveloped the surrounding houses when the fire erupted.
“Out of nowhere, we saw a black cloud of smoke pour down into our room,” he said.
Ed, a neighbor who lives about 100 feet from the home and provided only his first name, said he had never seen so many firefighters in the neighborhood.
"It was a huge pile of fire coming out of the front door," he said. "I said to myself, 'How the hell are (firefighters) going to get in there."
Remains of the two firefighters were taken to the state medical examiner's office in downtown Wilmington. Police, fire and other first responders stood at attention and saluted as a procession of city, county and state emergency vehicles passed on its way to the Delaware Division of Forensic Science, Saturday morning.
Messages also were posted on social media by fire and rescue companies across the nation. Gov. Jack Markell posted a message on Twitter: “Our thoughts & prayers are with our fallen & injured @WilmFireDept firefighters, their families & the entire fire service community.”
A sign outside the Hockessin Fire Company offered its devotions: “Prayers to our Brothers & Sisters of the Wilmington FD.”
Around 1 p.m. a neighbor of Fire Station 6 on North Union Street dropped off two pizzas to show her support for the department.
"It's tragic," said the woman, who declined to give her name. "They're part of our neighborhood."
The deaths mark the second incident that has seen a Delaware firefighter killed on the job this year.
On July 11, Tim Clanahan, a volunteer firefighter from Lewes, died after falling from a helicopter while training with the Delaware Air Rescue Team. Clanahan, 46, was a veteran emergency responder.
Before Saturday, the most recent Wilmington firefighter death was Prince Albert “Ali” Mousley Jr., 58, Mousley who collapsed with a heart attack and died at a house fire.
At least 13 firefighters have died in the line of duty since the department’s first paid platoon of 50 firefighters started service in 1921.
