Retired Pa. firefighter dies while helping others escape fire

Although he retired several years ago, Richard Miller, 61, died from smoke inhalation while evacuating people from a burning building

December 18, 2016 01:41 PM

By Andrew Goldstein
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

MUNHALL, Pa. — Rescuing civilians from emergencies was a way of life for Richard Miller.

That’s likely why the former paramedic and volunteer firefighter was helping residents escape the Munhall apartment building where he lived when a fire broke out inside early Friday.

Even though health problems forced Mr. Miller to retire several years ago, he worked alongside firefighters, police officers and civilians to get nearly 80 people safely out of the Parkview Towers apartments on Caroline Street after the fire ignited shortly before 5 a.m.

The only person he couldn’t rescue was himself.

“I actually found out from one of the firemen,” his daughter, Angela Fry, said Saturday evening. “I guess my dad was trying to get everyone out, and that’s how he succumbed to the smoke. He just couldn’t get himself out in time.”

Mr. Miller, 61, was pronounced dead at the scene. at 5:37 a.m. Officials with Munhall Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, where Mr. Miller had previously worked as a paramedic, confirmed that he died trying to evacuate others from the building.

Ms. Fry, a paramedic with Woodland Hills EMS in Forest Hills, said her father instilled the values of courage and compassion in her that he displayed Friday morning.

But he also had a lighter side. She recalled how her father taught her how to drive an ambulance.

“My dad loved coffee; this man drank coffee from dawn until midnight,” she said. “He sat in the passenger seat with a full cup of coffee to the brim, and he looked at me and he goes ‘If you spill my coffee you’re done.’ And that’s how I learned how to drive an ambulance.”

Ms. Fry and her father also shared some humorous moments when they were partners at one point in their careers, including the first time they were on a call together.

“It was out of habit I looked at him, and I said ‘Dad, what do you need?’ ” she said. “And the patient and her family looked at us like ‘Wait a minute. What?’ And they were laughing, and I said that’s my dad.”