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Ariz. fire captain dies in his sleep at station

By Nathan Gonzalez
The Arizona Republic

QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. — A Queen Creek Fire Department captain died unexpectedly in his sleep while on duty Saturday.

Capt. Eric Tinkham, 44, was the town’s first on-duty death. Members of Tinkham’s crew at fire station 2, 24787 S. Sossaman Road, found the 24-year fire veteran unresponsive about 7 a.m. and couldn’t wake him, a department statement said.

Paramedics could not resuscitate him, and a cause of death was not immediately known.

Full story: Tinkham was one of the inaugural firefighters when the department began