Overview
- A veteran Chicago Fire Department engineer collapsed while taking part in a hose-test training exercise and was given CPR by colleagues before being taken to St. Francis Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
- Funeral arrangements included a visitation at Colonial-Wojciechowski Funeral Homes and a service at St. Paul Lutheran Church that was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
- The firefighter, identified as 61-year-old Steven Decker, served about three decades with the department and was assigned to Engine 71 in the West Rogers Park/West Ridge area.
- The department has publicly mourned the loss and noted this is the second on-duty death reported for the year following an earlier fatality in March.
- Officials have not released a cause of death and the body was transported to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office as the department and union review the routine equipment test that engineers conduct and the broader impact on crews and families.