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A Kentucky fire chief died Friday after battling COVID-19 and cancer for weeks.
Zoneton Fire Chief Rob Orkies, 55, tested positive for the virus a week after he began chemotherapy and radiation treatment for skin cancer, WDRB-TV reported last month. Orkies was taken to the hospital Nov. 9 after he began feeling ill, and he was placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit Nov. 19.
"This is a difficult time for the entire Fire Department, and we will need to come together to get through it," the department stated in an online update Friday. "All of us know when we choose firefighting as a path that this type of occurrence is possible. But that does not make it any less tragic or any less difficult to bear once it actually happens."
It is with deepest sympathy and regret that we announce the death of Chief Robert Orkies. Chief Orkies succumbed to his...
Posted by Zoneton Fire Protection District on Friday, December 11, 2020
In October, Orkies had his cancer removed, but he developed blood clots in his lungs. His doctors had put his chemotherapy and radiation treatment—which began earlier this month and was set to run through December—on hold after Orkies contracted COVID-19.
A fire service veteran for more than 36 years, Orkies had been with the Zoneton Fire District since 1994. Before then, he was a member of the Okolona Fire Department.
"He was respected by all who knew him. All of us are deeply saddened by his death. Our condolences and prayers go out to his family and friends.
