By Claudia Vargas
Philly.com
PHILADELPHIA — A 34-year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department died Wednesday at Aria Torresdale Hospital, two days after he was critically injured in a training exercise at the Fire Academy in Holmesburg.
Lt. Benny Hutchins, 62, who joined the Fire Department in 1984, was going through a survival training exercise at the academy at 5200 Pennypack St. when he was injured, said Ed Marks, president of Local 22 firefighter’s union.
Marks said that he wasn’t sure what training exercise Hutchins was participating in when he was injured, but that it was part of a survival training that 1,700 people have gone through.
Hutchins served on several engine and ladder companies across the city since joining the department. He became a lieutenant in 2003 and most recently was assigned to Ladder 30 in Roxborough, where he had worked since January, the department said in a statement. He previously worked at Engine 64, where among notable duties he supervised Firefighter Joyce Craig-Lewis, who died battling a fire in 2014.
Funeral arrangements for Hutchins are pending.
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