PA Firefighter Dies During Vehicle Maintenance

June 07--Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered Pennsylvania state flags to fly at half-staff at all state offices and facilities to honor a Dover Township fire police officer who died while doing maintenance on a fire vehicle.

Grant Froman, 55, was pronounced dead at 9:59 a.m. Wednesday, June 6, at York Hospital, according to York County Coroner Pam Gay.

He died of natural causes, she said.

Commonwealth flags will fly at half-staff until sunset on the day Froman is interred, according to Wolf's office, which encouraged the public to fly their state flags at half-staff as well.

A memorial service for Froman will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 13, at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, 140 N. Beaver St. in York City, according to his obituary.

Flags have also been lowered in Froman's honor at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland, according to the Dover Township Fire Department.

Dover Township Deputy Fire Chief Brian Widmayer said Froman was very active in the department, responding to fire and crash scenes as a fire police officer and also volunteering his services in other ways.

Found in driveway: Froman was in the driveway of his Dover Township home and was working on the fire department's traffic-control unit when he was found unresponsive by a neighbor, according to Gay and township fire officials.

Despite life-saving measures prior to an ambulance arriving, Froman could not be revived, fire officials said.

Dover Township fire officials have called it a line-of-duty death.

Froman became a fire cop for Dover Township in 2001, according to Widmayer.

He regularly directed traffic around crash scenes and sites of fires, but he also volunteered his time at a number of Dover Township events, the deputy chief said.

Froman helped direct parking the the township's Christmas in the Park, its annual Easter-egg hunt for kids and at its annual Dover Doug prognostication ceremony, which is the township's version of Punxsutawney Phil, according to Widmayer.

Loved to cook: Froman's favorite way to help was to cook, and he was great at it, Widmayer said.

He cooked for the department's bingo events and for the fire department's annual Breakfast with Santa, which offers an all-you-can-eat breakfast for just a few dollars where parents can take their own photos of their kids sitting on Santa's lap.

"A lot of times those Santa events are so expensive," Widmayer said, adding the fire department wanted to provide residents with a low-cost, community-oriented alternative. "There are hundreds of people who come for it every year."

Froman had a smoker at his home and regularly smoked ribs, pork roasts and other meats, Widmayer said.

"That was his big thing," the deputy chief said, and Froman would bring in trays of smoked meats for the firefighters.

'Always amazing': "You had to tell him how good it was, because if it wasn't good he wanted to know," Widmayer said. "But it was never not good -- it was always amazing."

Froman's other passion was woodworking.

"He had what I call a Bob Villa workbench" in his basement, Widmayer said.

Froman's obituary encourages those who attend his memorial service to wear Hawaiian shirts, "as anyone who knew Grant knew that he loved wearing them, in loud colors!"

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