Trumann (AR) Fire Chief Rick Winkles, 53, suffered from a heart attack while fighting a fire Tuesday afternoon.
KAIT reported (http://bit.ly/1e7QpjK) that Chief Winkles died around 6 p.m. at the hospital. The fire, which began due to an accidental grass fire, destroyed a home.
Winkles was a few months shy of being on the department for 28 years and had planned to retire.
Read more at http://bit.ly/1e7QpjK.
This death comes a little over a week after a 49-year-old Orange County (CA) firefighter suffered an apparent heart attack at a station and later died and less than a week after a Pennsylvania firefighter suffered a heart attack at a fire. Earlier this month, a New Jersey firefighter suffered an apparent heart attack after a 16-hour fire watch in the frigid cold and died.
For more on cardiac issues affecting firefighters, consider New Study Examines Sudden Cardiac Events in Firefighters, Acute Coronary Syndromes in Firefighters: An “Athletic” Approach to Prevention, and Firefighters Organization Offers Lifestyle Program to Prevent Heart Attack -Related Line-of-Duty Deaths.
