Neighbor discovered downed firefighter in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Hopelawn VFD's Bruce Turcotte found slumped behind wheel. Son was also at house fire.
Photo by Keith Addie, www.njfiregroundphotos.com.
Read entire Woodbridge Patch article about FF Bruce Turcotte
Read entire Star Ledger article about FF Bruce Turcotte
Previous coverage of the fire
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Krista Sweeney had rushed backed to her home yesterday afternoon after hearing about a fire in the neighborhood. Deborah Bell at the Woodbridge Patch reports that as Sweeney was walking up Jefferson Street she passed a fire engine and saw what she at first thought was a mannequin behind the wheel.
Looking a little closer, she realized it was actually a man in the driver's seat. It turned out to be Bruce Turcotte, a former chief of the Hopelawn VFD. According to Bell's article Sweeney alerted firefighters on the scene:
The firemen looked at one another and in seconds, they had located Turcotte, dragged his body from the cab of the fire engine, and were furiously working to revive him.
"They didn't know [that he was injured.] You couldn't see him from where they were fighting the fire. The ambulance blocked it. You had to be where I was," she said, as she was walking towards her house to see Turcotte's unconscious body in the fire truck.
The Star-Ledger reports that Bruce Turcotte's son Brian, also a Hopelawn firefighter, was on the call:
Turcotte, a former chief of Hopelawn Engine Company No. 1, excelled to the end, said Brian Turcotte, the fallen man’s son and a firefighter himself with Hopelawn.
The younger Turcotte was there Thursday for his father’s final mission, a fatal residential fire on Jefferson Street in the Menlo Park Terrace section of the township.
Turcotte went into cardiac arrest after Hopelawn’s Rapid Intervention Crew arrived at the scene, according to his son and a statement from fire Capt. Joseph Heintjes. According to Heintjes, the elder Turcotte was assisting in stretching hoses so the engine company crews could advance to the building.
A short time later, he was discovered unresponsive behind the wheel of the truck.
In addition to Firefighter Turcotte's death, a man was found dead in the basement of the burning home. Woodbridge's mayor told The Star Ledger the same home had a fatal fire in the 1970s.
