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A Wisconsin fire chief died last week after battling COVID-19 for more than a month.
Clayton Fire Chief Donald Kittelson, 55, had been fighting the virus for five weeks, and he also was suffering from pneumonia and meningitis, the Star Tribune reports. He had been on a ventilator at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, MN, when he died Thursday.
"We lost a hero tonight. You have touched so many," the department stated about Kittelson in a social media update.
We lost a hero tonight. You have touched so many. Family, friends , Community and YOUR fire department brothers and...
Posted by Clayton Fire Department on Thursday, December 17, 2020
Known as "Chief Don" among his colleagues, Kittelson was a third-generation firefighter who had been with the Clayton Fire Department for 34 years. He valued the younger members of the 25-person department and took pride in making sure they were properly prepared when they were out in the field, according to Jenny Bergman, Clayton's second assistant chief.
"When a call came in, he'd always say, 'I trained you to do your job, and I know you will do it,'" she told the Star Tribune. "There was never a worry. He had that heart for us."
Residents showed their support for the chief following his COVID diagnosis in November. Lawn signs wishing him well—"We support Chief Don," and "Come Home Safe"—were sold and displayed around the 550-person town, which is about an hour northeast of St. Paul.
"The plan was for him to come home and see those signs," Bergmann said. "This is tough. He was locker No. 1 and it looks so sad right now."
