By FireRescue1 Staff
AUBURN, Ala. — Forty years after their department’s first line of duty death, Auburn firefighters gathered to remember their fallen brother Monday.
Auburn Capt. Roger Brookshire died Jan. 23, 1977 after responding to a medical call, reported Oanow.com.
Retired firefighter Steve Tucker drove the fire truck for Brookshire on the day of the incident. “Instead of getting in the truck with me, he jumped in the battalion chief’s car and went to the scene,” Tucker said.
While administering CPR to the patient, Capt. Brookshire lost consciousness and was not responsive.
“How it happened, I can’t tell you,” Tucker said. “He fell across my hands doing CPR. I asked the dumbest question you can ask, ‘Captain, you OK?’ And he never regained consciousness.”
Capt. Brookshire’s death was the department’s first line of duty death, and the department continues to keep his memory alive. A photo of him and his helmet is always on display at one of the department’s stations.
Firefighters gathered at Capt. Brookshire’s grave, where a ceremony was held. His death also serves as a reminder for firefighters to care for their own.
“It reaffirms the practice of making sure that you as a responder are safe,” Auburn Deputy Chief Matthew Jordan said. “Those guys that are out there responding every day, it helps to talk to the people that are here and know that he was a guy that was just like all of us. He got on a truck that day to go help someone, fully expected to go home that night, but didn’t. So I think for us as a department, he’s really done a whole lot, just knowing that it can happen.”
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