The Berwick, ME, firefighter fatally injured in an apartment fire died a hero on Friday after he jumped on a fellow firefighter shielding him from the inferno as the blaze closed around them.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Capt Joel Barnes of Shapleigh, ME, 32, and another firefighter were trapped on the third floor in a four-alarm fire. His final act in the career he pursued since childhood was to save a colleague, the newspaper reported.
The captain’s father, Michael Barnes, told the paper that the firefighter his son saved hugged him and told him his son saved his life covering him as the flames closed in. The trapped firefighters were told to hang where they were and await rescue from some of the other firefighters from 17 communities battling the apartment building fire.
A total of five firefighters were hurt battling the fire, four were treated and released from a nearby New Hampshire hospital. Despite intense efforts to save Barnes, he succumbed to his injuries.
Rochester, NH, Assistant Fire Chief Tim Wilder, who served as incident commander, told the television station WCSH News Center Maine that Barnes and the other firefighter, who has not been identified, were trapped and a mayday was declared only minutes after the first crews arrived on the scene.
Steve McCausland, Maine’s Public Safety spokesman, told the Associated Press that the two firefighters encountered a wall of flames when they made the third floor and had to be rescued.
Reports indicate that rescue crews were trying to revive Barnes immediately after he was retrieved from the fire, but the efforts were not successful. The captain was declared dead at Wentworth Douglass Hospital in Dover, NH. A procession of emergency vehicles and police cruisers left the hospital Friday afternoon as Barnes’ body was taken to Concord, NH, for an autopsy which was expected to be completed Saturday.
The fallen captain’s family told the Portland Press Herald that Barnes was “laser-focused” on his career from age 10 when he began studying the fire science and emergency medicine. His father said his son never wavered from achieving his goal of being a firefighter and paramedic.
After graduating from Old Orchard Beach, ME, High School in 2005, Barnes attended Southern Maine Community College’s fire science course and later going on to Horry County, SC, Fire Department for more training, the newspaper reported. He later served as a firefighter and paramedic in Myrtle Beach.
Upon returning to Maine, Barnes became one of Berwick’s five career personnel with its fire and rescue department.
Barnes returned to Maine a couple of years ago to be closer to his family, including his niece and nephew with whom he had developed a close relationship, Barnes’ sister, Kara Allaire, 35, of Dover, NH, told the newspaper.
Barnes is survived by his mother and father and his sister and a niece and nephew.
