Jake Sheridan
Chicago Tribune
(TNS)
A Chicago Fire Department firefighter seriously injured while responding to a Norwood Park residential fire earlier this month died late Monday night, the Fire Department said Tuesday morning.
Lt. Kevin Ward, 59, died at Loyola Medical Center surrounded by family, the department said. He served with the department for 27 years.
Ward was one of three firefighters transported to hospitals after an Aug. 11 fire at the home at 8336 Balmoral Ave. on the Northwest Side.
The firefighter’s condition remained serious, but had stabilized with “steady improvement” two days after the fire, CFD spokesman Larry Langford said at the time.
Ward joined the department in 1996, Langford said.
On Tuesday afternoon, a procession of fire and police vehicles carried Ward’s body from the hospital in Maywood to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Four helicopters hovered above as the motorcade moved city-bound on Roosevelt Road, drifting east until the vehicles arrived at the medical examiner’s office.
There, the procession passed beneath the outstretched ladders of two firetrucks. An American flag hung between the two red vehicles.
The paramedics, firefighters and police gathered to receive Ward’s body snapped to attention as the vehicle carrying him passed.
Firefighters are still trying to figure out what led to the injuries that ultimately killed Ward, Langford told reporters at the medical examiner’s office.
“We were never able to interview the lieutenant, so a lot of it is just putting together what we can find out from the others who were there with him,” Langford said.
Ward was in the basement of the single-story, raised ranch home during the fire, Langford said. There were other firefighters working, but the first responders had to battle extremely heavy smoke.
“You couldn’t see more than 6 inches in front of you,” Langford said. “He became trapped in the basement for reasons we don’t know.”
The firefighter suffered respiratory injuries and was quickly intubated, Langford said. He had been conscious and alert in the weeks after the fire, but continued to be intubated and sedated, Langford said.
Before serving on the Northwest Side, Ward had long worked as a firefighter at O’Hare International Airport, Langford said.
As Ward’s body was carried into the medical examiner’s office, CFD Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt told the crowd of first responders that firefighting is a dangerous job, and the most important thing is making it home.
“I wish I wasn’t here today,” she told reporters later. “We’ve been to the morgue far too much this year.”
Ward’s passing marks the department’s first active duty death since Lt. Jan Tchoryk died in a Gold Coast high-rise fire in early April. The day before, firefighter Jermaine Pelt had died in a West Pullman residential fire.
Fire Department leaders had been holding out hope Ward would survive, Nance-Holt said.
“It really rings home the fact that fighting fires is dangerous business, and we don’t know when we come to work in the morning if we’ll return home,” she said.
Nance-Holt said Ward sought adventure in his work and personal life. He was an avid reader, the firefighter’s sister told the commissioner. He had also served on the department’s Hazmat and air and sea rescue teams, the commissioner added.
Ward was also a dedicated underwater hockey player. He was “completely addicted” to the atypical sport, he told the Tribune in a 2014 story.
Friends from the “Chicago Shorgis,” the city’s underwater hockey club, mourned the death of their teammate Tuesday.
“We’ve been rooting and praying for him,” Linda Parsons of Irving Park said. “Our team is devastated. In shock, and devastated.”
Ward was a speedy scorer who swam fast through the water, she said. But he slowed down to help teach new players how the unconventional sport works, Parsons added. He started playing 15 years ago, she said.
The firefighter ran a company selling underwater hockey equipment called Bentfish Design, making him known as a player and leader across the sport’s tight-knit national community, she said.
His contagious enthusiasm made him a fun person to play with, Parsons said.
Carrie Desmond recalled Ward giving her rides to underwater hockey practices. She was a college student when she started playing and wouldn’t have been able to participate like she did without his help, she said. They were never short on things to talk about.
Ward was passionate about his firefighting work and proud of his contribution to society, she said. That energy drifted into his personal life, she said.
“He was really a person driven by service,” said Desmond, who moved to Minneapolis a few years ago and kept in touch with Ward through the sport.
He enjoyed strategy conversations and postgame analysis. He also sought to grow the sport, donating gear to help rookie players start or to plant the seeds for new teams in other cities, she said.
“He was always looking for ways to get better,” Desmond said.
Ward had been thinking of retiring to his second home in the mountains of Colorado, said his teammate and friend Vincent Kiernan, of Elmhurst.
“He’d been hemming and hawing over it for the past two years or so,” Kiernan said.
The firefighter’s life was filled with hobbies, Kiernan said. Ward had recently bought a Porsche and enjoyed auto body work. He also worked with metal, Kiernan added.
But across every part of his life, some constants remained. He shared time and effort for the people and things he cared about, his friends said. He was generous with his money and energetically found creative ways to make things better.
“He did so much for everyone around him, and he never needed you to say thanks,” Kiernan said.
Ward didn’t need to keep working as a firefighter or keep running into burning houses as a lieutenant, Kiernan said. He also didn’t need to show up hours early before practices to make sure the pool’s surface was ready to go, he added. But he did those things.
“He always took massive ownership. He was really selfless,” Kiernan said.
At going on 60 years old, Ward was still the “biggest, strongest, fastest guy on the team,” Kiernan said.
“He was like Superman,” he said.
Bob Arens, a retired firefighter who served with Ward on Truck 9, drove from Jefferson Park to Little Italy to watch as Ward’s body arrived Tuesday.
Arens praised Ward as a “good guy to work for” and a “great lieutenant.” The two saw each other as they arrived and left for their different shifts, Arens said.
“He was always nice to me. We got along, we laughed. It’s just a brotherhood. That’s what we do,” he said.
A representative of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 said Tuesday he expected Ward’s death to eventually be ruled as a line-of-duty death.
“We’re sad right now, but just like everything, when the bell rings, we’ll get back on that rig, and we go out, and we respect him. We do our job — what we were taught, and what he taught us,” Arens said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson called on Chicagoans to keep Ward’s Truck No. 9 and the city’s first responders in their hearts as the firefighter is remembered.
“I pray for the peace of his family, friends and loved ones during this most difficult time,” Johnson said in a statement Tuesday morning.
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