A veteran Indiana firefighter has died from an apparent heart attack at his home hours after battling a fire.
Following a large blaze at an auto body shop near downtown Greenfield on Friday night, 55-year-old firefighter Scott Compton was found unresponsive in his yard by a neighbor on Saturday afternoon, according to WTHR News.
Compton was a 17-year veteran with the Greenfield Fire Department who had given up his rank as lieutenant several years ago to become a part-time firefighter and EMT.
"He was a tremendous guy, hard worker, eager to do whatever needed to be done, never complained about anything around here, truly loved the job," Greenfield Fire Chief Jim Roberts told WTHR on Saturday night.
Several reports say Friday night's blaze was a difficult battle for Greenfield firefighters, who tackled the flames for nearly seven hours and finally had the incident wrapped up by about 1 a.m. Saturday.
"Felt like we did a very good job with that fire, so you come back feeling good about it," Chief Roberts said. "Something like this to happen really changes the mood and the attitude."
WTHR says Compton is survived by two adult daughters and a fiance.
"Great loss of a tremendous worker, a firefighter here at the department and a great friend," Chief Roberts said.
