April 6, 2023 Purple and black bunting now graces two Chicago fire stations where the firefighters worked.
Firefighters across Chicago are stunned and heartbroken following the deaths of two colleagues about 28 hours apart.
Firefighter Jermaine Pelt, 49, died early Tuesday when he collapsed as he advanced a line in a house fire. Lt. Jan (Jon) Tchoryk, 55, answered his final alarm Wednesday at a high-rise.
Pelt died of carbon monoxide toxicity due to inhalation of smoke and soot, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
An autopsy showed Tchoryk revealed died from hypertensive-arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
On Tuesday, black and purple bunting was placed on the Engine 115 and 75 station where Pelt spent most of his 18-year career.
Little did firefighters know then that another station — Engine4/Tower 10 — would be marked with similar cloths the following day.
And, for the second day in a row, a procession of emergency vehicles with lights flashing made their way through the busy city streets as they escorted another fallen brother to the medical examiner’s office.
“Right now, I have two funerals to prepare for, two grieving families and a huge department that is broken…” Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
Psychologist Dr. Carrie Steiner of the First Responders Wellness Center told a CBS reporter her office is already hearing from Chicago firefighters.
“Right now, they’re still preparing for the funeral and things like that,” she said, “so I expect we will get more in a few days.”
Steiner, a former Chicago police officer, works with first responders – specializing in trauma therapy.
She added that after the loss of a firefighter, the atmosphere in firehouses changes.
“A lot of times firefighters can feel like, ‘I shouldn’t have a good time, or laugh, or enjoy myself, because he’s not – and he’s not here anymore,’ and the thing I remind first responders about is that they’re doing this job so people can live, and he would want you to do that too. So, it doesn’t mean that you don’t care about him if you have a smile on your face or you can enjoy a joke. That is what you guys fight for every day.”
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