The Macon Telegraph
MACON, Ga. — Members of the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department are weathering through a series of tragic events that began more than a month ago with the on-duty fire death of Lt. Randy Parker.
“It’s just one thing after the next,” Chief Marvin Riggins said Thursday as the department prepared for the funeral of retired firefighter Leon Burnley. At 89, Burnley was the department’s oldest retiree before his death Tuesday.
On Monday, 29-year-old firefighter Kyle Livingston was critically injured in an accident on his way to work.
“He’s still in ICU in the neurointensive care unit, and his condition is guarded,” Riggins said.
Doctors at the Medical Center, Navicent Health, have been talking about scheduling surgery, but they are waiting for Livingston’s condition to stabilize, he said.
Firefighters are also coping with two fire-related deaths this past weekend.
A 7-year-old boy, Zantrell Russell, died Monday morning after firefighters pulled him from a duplex fire late Saturday night on Wren Avenue. Bystanders were able to get two other small children to safety, but the smoke was too thick to reach Russell in time.
The next night, 55-year-old Wes Cochran died in a car fire on Ten Knolls Drive.
Riggins said first responders were also affected by the death of 45-year-old Kenneth O’Neill, who was run over by his disabled truck Feb. 23 -- just a week after firefighters laid Parker to rest.
Battalion Chief Stephen Stafford, who suffered smoke inhalation Feb. 11 in the frantic efforts to free Parker from debris in a house fire on Fairview Drive, remains hospitalized at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta.
“We’re hopeful he’ll be discharged and returned to Macon soon,” Riggins said. “They continue to be very optimistic about his progression.”
With the exception of a couple of crew members who are on vacation, most of the remaining injured firefighters have come back to work.
“Most are back and riding fire trucks, but we’re still working with them,” Riggins said. “A day at a time we’re grieving through it together and getting stronger as time goes by.”
Riggins is pleased that the Macon-Bibb County Commission appears poised to approve up to five days of administrative leave for all county workers in special circumstances.
The chief said he realized changes to policy after consolidation prevented him from granting leave to firefighters traumatically affected by Parker’s death.
Post-traumatic stress can be difficult to predict, he said.
“The ripple effect, you never know how big it will go, how wide it will spread,” Riggins said.
In the meantime, the chief is still awaiting a report from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on the fire that killed Parker.
Two weeks after the fatal fire, ATF agents interviewed firefighters who were at the scene that night, and they are compiling their findings.
Riggins expects to hear something soon.
“We’re trying to give them time to get it all together.”
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