Fallen Cleveland Firefighter Loved Serving Others
By John H. Tucker
Source cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — First Grade Firefighter Johnny Tetrick worked the B Shift for the Cleveland Division of Fire’s Engine 22 stationhouse, and he kept two leather items that were weathered with age and devotion.
The first was a decades-old helmet he refused to retire, worn down by service to a section of town known for frequent blazes.
The second was a Bible, perched on a bedside table in a back-station dormitory, containing marginal notes Tetrick jotted during quiet moments within 24-hour workdays.
Faith and service were two elements of Tetrick’s life his comrades will remember following his death on Saturday in the line of duty after 27 years with the division.
At 8:15 that night, as snow began to carpet the city, Tetrick, 51, was called to a crash in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90, at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Bratenahl. A vehicle had flipped over.
As Tetrick cleared the roadway of debris, a motorist driving a Chevrolet Malibu struck him and fled, according to city officials. Tetrick was rushed to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He is survived by three adult daughters.
Tetrick’s father, Kris, a retired Cleveland firefighter who also was stationed at Engine 22 during a portion of his career, survives him, as well.
About four hours after the crash, Bratenahl police arrested Leander Bissell, 40, after locating what they said was the Malibu on the corner of 152nd Street and Ridpath Avenue. The arresting officer reported that Bissell was intoxicated, charging documents show.
Bissell is charged in Cleveland Municipal Court for aggravated vehicular homicide and failure to stop after an accident on public roads or highways. His case is expected to be transferred to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court within a few weeks.
Tetrick, who lived in Kirtland, graduated from the fire academy in 1995 and joined Engine 22 in 1997. The eastside station serves the Hough and St. Clair-Superior neighborhoods, an area with a fair share of vacant homes, absentee landlords and crime, resulting in many service calls.
“You don’t stay there very long if you don’t like going to fires and you don’t have good work ethic,” said Kevin McCafferty, who served alongside Tetrick throughout his career before his recent retirement, recalling Engine 22 shifts marked by two-dozen runs without sleep. The heavy work has pushed many colleagues out.
But not Tetrick.
“He was just solid,” McCafferty said. “If you worked with him, you knew you had no worries. You knew he was going to get the job done and put the fire out.”
Of Engine 22′s 17 firefighters, Tetrick belonged to a core group of four who joined during the 1990s and remain active, making him a father figure to younger firefighters, and beloved by them all. He chose to remain at Engine 22 rather than transfer to a station with less volume.
“He wanted to be at a place where he could most make a difference,” said Bob Schwind, Tetrick’s lieutenant. “As crazy as it sounds, he liked going to fires. He loved helping people in their time of need.”
Tetrick did a little bit of everything for the company: he drove the truck, operated the pump and fired water into smoke-filled buildings. He kept in shape into his 50s, ending most shifts with a stationhouse workout session. His commitment to the division was instilled in him by his father, colleagues say.
The tightknit group of Engine 22 firefighters developed a brotherhood during long shifts, cooking, exercising and watching movies together. They attended the weddings and graduations parties of their kids.
Francis Lally, the president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 93, Cleveland’s fire union, joined Engine 22 as a rookie in 2001 and didn’t know anyone. Lally, then in his 30s, was grateful that Tetrick, who belonged to his own generation, took him under his wing.
“He’ll always be a special person because he was there for me when I showed up,” Lally recalled. “He was the soul of the station.”
Tetrick was also a man of pronounced faith. He served on several mission trips, to Nicaragua, Jamaica and Tennessee. He often supervised students and used his carpentry skills—another talent inherited from his father—to refurbish homes, laying concrete, painting walls and installing doors for people in need.
“He was a gentle, kind and strong man, and he always had a smile on his face,” said Jim Davis, a pastor at of Willoughby Hills Friends Church, where Tetrick was a member. “He had a great influence on others through his faith.”
His mission trips often included his daughters. “Johnny lived for his girls,” said McCafferty.
According to Davis, calling hours for Tetrick will be on Friday at Willoughby Hills Friends from 1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. The funeral will be Saturday at Rocket Mortgage Field House at 11 a.m., and it will be open to the public, he said.
Cleveland firefighters have managed to survive the last several decades with few line-of-duty deaths. In 1985, Engine 22 firefighter Daniel Pescatrice died while working a fire at a commercial business. In 1995, Edward Carey passed away after a 16-year coma owing to smoke inhalation during a 1979 incident. In 2020, Rich Petras passed away from complications of Covid-19.
Still, Engine 22 members were aware of the risks of the job.
“We always worried we were kind of living on borrowed time, with all those years without a line-of-duty death,” said Schwind. “We were always wondering when it was going to come.”
On Sunday, as the city ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff, Tetrick’s daughters traveled to Engine 22 to claim his belongings, including his leather Bible and helmet.
The helmet, which Tetrick painted in red, white and blue, was burnt-out and “passed its expiration date,” McCafferty joked with affection. But it served the 27-year veteran until the end.
In hand-painted lettering, Tetrick had inscribed it with a verse from the Gospel of John. It reads, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
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