BUFFALO, N.Y. — Police are investigating how a firefighter was shot and injured while training over the weekend.
WIVB reported that the 32-year-old rookie firefighter from Buffalo’s Ladder 13, who had just graduated from the academy in July, was training Saturday evening on the roof of a house when he felt a sharp pain in his left side. He ignored it and continued working.
When he returned to the station, he saw there was a hole in his turnout gear. There was also a burn mark on his left side, which went through his turnout gear, heavy sweatshirt and T-shirt. He was taken to a hospital for an evaluation.
“I’d hate to think that somebody was taking a shot at one of our firefighters. The world has gotten kind of crazy lately,” Thomas Barrett, president of the Buffalo Professional Firefighters Union, said. “I would hate to speculate that was the case, but I don’t really know what it could be or what it was; the hospital and everything, nobody could determine anything.”
If it was a bullet that made the mark, the firefighter could have been saved by his coat.
The police department continues to investigate the case.