Colleagues mourn former Fla. firefighter

By Ken Kaye
Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. — It was a day of bliss, full of four-leaf clovers and promise.

Wally Broadhead, a former Deerfield Beach firefighter, surprised his girlfriend with an engagement ring in front of a cheering crowd during a St. Patrick's Day parade last year. He and Gina Atwell planned to marry July 7 — the supposedly charmed 7-7-07.

But less than two weeks before their wedding day, his luck ran out. Broadhead suffered a massive heart attack. A crew of Deerfield Beach paramedics, with whom he had worked for years, nursed him back to life.

On Monday, after a three-month struggle to recover, Broadhead died. He was 33.

"Being a firefighter, he was always willing to help anybody, any time," said Charles Atwell, brother of the fiancee. "He was a real down-to-earth person."

On Saturday, Broadhead, who had been a firefighter for 13 years, will receive a burial with color guard and full honors, to be conducted by the Deerfield Beach Fire Department.

Instead of a hearse, the casket will be carried on a 1947 Mack fire truck. It's a vehicle that Broadhead loved and maintained for the Pompano Highlands Volunteer Fire Department, which he was a member of until his death.

"We kind of nicknamed that truck 'Wally's truck' because he really took care of it," said Deerfield Beach Fire Lt. Matt Pellitteri.

It was the same truck Broadhead and Gina Atwell were riding on during the parade in Delray Beach on March 17, 2006, when he popped the question, his fiancee said.

"That was the happiest day of my life," Atwell, 29, of Boca Raton, said. "And it's crazy because [today] and Saturday are going to be the worst days of my life."

Today, a viewing for Broadhead will be 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens and Chapel, 200 W. Copans Road., Pompano Beach.

On Saturday, a funeral will be held at 10 a.m. at the chapel, followed by burial at Deerfield Beach Memorial Cemetery, 380 NE Sixth Ave.

While a Deerfield Beach firefighter-paramedic, Broadhead was involved in numerous community events and departmental programs. He helped prepare high school students for medical careers. He mentored new firefighter hires. And he was part of a paramedic unit that rode bikes at special events.

He retired from the department about a year ago to become a fire inspector for Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach.

On June 26, as he was leaving for work, he unexpectedly experienced cardiac arrest and collapsed. At the time, he and Atwell were living in the Deerfield Beach home of Broadhead's mother, Marion Broadhead.

Paramedics arrived quickly, but it took 20 minutes for them to get his heart beating again.

"The ironic thing is, many of the guys who responded were his good friends, or guys that he had mentored," Pellitteri said.

For about three weeks, Broadhead was in a coma. When he came out of it, he was unable to walk and could barely talk, the result of suffering severe brain damage. He spent weeks in rehabilitation therapy, his firefighter friends by his side. But he developed pneumonia, which ultimately took his life.

Atwell, a lender for a bank, had to cancel their wedding, which would have taken place on her uncle's pastoral 4-acre property in Loxahatchee and been attended by about 180 guests.

"We were going to have this beautiful spread," she said.