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Firefighter dies in line of duty Death is Pittsburgh's first since 3 were killed in 1995 Friday, June 18, 1999 By Jonathan D. Silver, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Fifty years ago, Paul McGrath was born at St. John's General Hospital in Brighton Heights.
Yesterday, while fighting a fire in front of the boarded-up, burning complex, McGrath suffered a seizure and died a short time later at Allegheny General Hospital.
McGrath yesterday became the first city firefighter to die in the line of duty since the Valentine's Day blaze of 1995, in which three firefighters were killed in a Brushton arson.
In that case, the trio was trapped after a stairwell collapsed. Even as their oxygen supply dwindled, the hose that was their lifeline to the outside world burned through.
The only similarity with yesterday morning's fire was that arson was suspected. Otherwise, nothing was the same. McGrath never even set foot in the old hospital, which has been vacant since 1996. He had all the air of the outdoors to gulp down. And he wasn't cut off from help -- he was one of 52 firefighters swarming over the scene.
What happened, no one quite knows. Things might become clearer today, when an autopsy is performed. But as far as McGrath's colleagues are concerned, one minute he was the scrappy ox of a firefighter they all knew, the next he was being carted past them on a gurney, helpless and still.
"Right now the presumption is ... the stress of working that fire is what caused his death," Acting Fire Chief Peter Micheli said at a news conference.
McGrath had no history of health problems, as far as Micheli knew. He could not say when McGrath last had a medical exam. The Pittsburgh Fire Bureau requires check-ups only when firefighters join the bureau, when they're up for a promotion, or if they're off more than 14 days.
Despite his half-century, McGrath looked fit and trim. A 19-year veteran of the bureau, he was sleeping during the night turn at Engine Co. 34 in Perry North when the alarm came in after 4 a.m. for a fire at 3400 Fleming Ave.
McGrath and his seven colleagues at the firehouse each strapped on their 65 pounds of gear, clambered onto the two trucks parked in the bay, and roared off to the fire.
On their way, they rolled past the flagpole planted outside that McGrath had been instrumental in obtaining just two weeks before. Scant hours later, Old Glory would hang from it at half-staff.
Things escalated quickly at the blaze, which ratcheted up in intensity from one alarm to two and then three, as it did an estimated $60,000 worth of damage to the premises. Micheli was paged to come to the scene, as is routine procedure for a three-alarm fire.
The decision was quickly made to fight the fire defensively, to not risk anyone's lives inside the three-story brick structure. The building had once been part of St. John's General Hospital, which then became Pittsburgh Mercy Health Systems' psychiatric institute until it was closed and sold to the Falbo Corp. in December 1996.
McGrath went about his duties. He brought ladders to the side of the building, helped punch through pieces of plywood to ventilate the structure, and then teamed up with Gene Harnish on the aerial ladder truck.
McGrath's task was to hook up a 5-inch hose to the aerial and start a water supply. When that was done, he sat on the back of the truck, atop the rotating platform called the "turntable." At one point, Ed Farley, who had just been promoted to lieutenant Monday and was in charge of the truck for the first time, came over to check in with his men.
"I asked [McGrath] if he was OK. He said he was fine," Farley said. "I went back to the scene, and that's the last I saw of him."
A short time later, after nearly two hours of battling the blaze, Harnish got the first inkling that there was a problem.
"He just felt light in the head," Harnish said. "He asked me if I'd help him down off the turntable."
McGrath got to the street, unaware that he was under the watchful eye of city paramedics.
John Ciufi, a paramedic with Medic 4 on the North Side, had noticed that McGrath was looking out of sorts, as if he had just run 10 miles and was winded. Ciufi saw McGrath cross Fleming Avenue and go behind a pumper truck parked there. When McGrath didn't emerge, Ciufi went to look for him.
He found McGrath sitting on some steps.
"I said, 'How ya doing? How ya feeling there?' That's when he basically just immediately had a seizure. He didn't even get a word out," Ciufi recalled.
For a minute, McGrath shook uncontrollably.
"Then he came out of it. We asked him how he was doing, and he said, 'Fine. You just go about your business.' " Ciufi said.
McGrath had no idea what had happened. He told Ciufi he didn't need any help. Ciufi at first sweet-talked him, told him he needed to check him over, said he might not even need to take him to the hospital. And when McGrath kept insisting he was fine, Ciufi said he'd notify the battalion chief if he had to.
"Just when he was about to put up one more argument, he had another seizure, and that one he didn't come out of," Ciufi said.
It was about 6 a.m., just as the fire was being brought under control. Within two minutes, McGrath had stopped breathing. Ciufi and his partner Bill Hemming tried everything they could.
"We were there, we had everything on him as quick as we could, but he didn't come out of it," said Ciufi, a paramedic for 20 years. "His body didn't respond to what we were doing to him."
In the end, the paramedics rushed McGrath to Allegheny General, where he was pronounced dead at 6:29 a.m. in the emergency room.
Word spread quickly among the battalion, the fire bureau, the family and the neighborhood. Aside from a three-year tour of Vietnam that began in 1967, McGrath had never strayed far from home. He was born on Antrim Street, around the corner from the fire scene where he died. He lived on Sipe Street, behind St. John's.
From his house, one can see the back of the compound, the blackened husk of the roof. It's where McGrath's eldest son, Daniel, 25, watched the fire, unaware that his father would become a casualty.
"He was a good guy in the firehouse. He was a firefighter that anyone would partner up with," said Dave Anderson, 47. "It's just part of the job. Waking up in the dead of night at four in the morning and then going at full speed -- it's not so good for the heart."
Capt. John Brennan, 49, who knew McGrath since they were about 8, said the firefighters who worked together were like family. He said McGrath had been at the station for a few years, and had worked previously at Engine Co. 37 in Manchester. He said McGrath also was a member of the city's hazardous materials team.
"It's tragic," Brennan said. "He wouldn't want you to boo-hoo about it. He'd want you to have a beer and carry on."
At the noon news conference, Chief Micheli appeared with a black band across his gold shield. Mayor Murphy ordered all city flags to be lowered.
And in front of Engine Co. 34 at the corner of Perrysville Avenue and Bonvue Street, firefighters erected a makeshift memorial in front of the flagpole. They draped McGrath's overcoat over the stool he often sat on, carefully placing his boots, pants and helmet in front.
In the McGrath household, the family congregated.
There, Patrick McGrath said his brother hadn't had a lifelong ambition to become a firefighter. Instead, he waited until age 32 to follow in the footsteps of dozens of youngsters who came out of Brighton Heights and joined the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau.
McGrath attended St. Francis Xavier and then Holy Innocence High School in Sheraden. After school, he went to Vietnam. Upon his return, he worked at several state liquor stores before joining the fire bureau.
There will be a viewing for McGrath at the William F. O'Brien Funeral Home on the North Side from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday.
Firefighters will hold a service there 8 p.m. Sunday. The funeral will be at noon Tuesday at Risen-Lord Parish-St. Francis Xavier Church.
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