Rookie Firefighter LODD, Bravery and Courage

Rookie firefighter killed by explosion in Ill. Firefighter Brian Carey had been on the job for less than two months

Duty Death: Brian Carey - [Homewood, Illinois]

By Kim Janssen, Rosemary Sobol and Kara Spak
The Chicago Sun-Times

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HOMEWOOD, Ill. — A rookie Homewood firefighter died in a Tuesday night house fire trying to rescue an elderly couple in a Homewood home.

Firefighter Brian Carey had been on the job for less than two months, his father Brian Carey said.

Brian Carey said his son had always wanted to be a firefighter and "was living the dream."

He was hired by Homewood into a full-time position just seven weeks ago, his father said.

"From the time he was a little boy it was his dream to be a fireman," he said.

Carey's family had tried to dissuade him from being a firefighter, and encouraged him to go to college, he said.

But when Carey, who initially trained as an ambulance driver, returned from college, he couldn't be stopped.

"He had that old South Side Irish feeling about a firefighter being a respectable job," his dad said.

Carey trained as a part-time firefighter in Roberts Park and other fire protection districts, and paid his own way through school, his dad said.

He'd also worked part time in Homewood before he was taken on permanently.

"He just loved the job," his dad said. "If there was a fire on a day when he was not working and he missed it, he was upset."

The rescue attempt

By FireRescue1 Staff

The department said in a press release Wednesday because of the extreme heat and the amount of fire burning inside the house, the sole occupant could not be reached and his body was located after entry could be made.

During the rescue attempt, firefighter paramedics Brian Carey and Karra Kopas were injured. Firefighter Carey succumbed to his injuries and passed away while at the hospital. Firefighter Kopas suffered first and second degree burns and is in stable condition at the University of Chicago Burn Center.

At a press conference, Homewood Fire Chief Grabowski stated that the fire is currently under investigation and no information is currently available regarding its cause or origin of the fire.

"This is the first casualty the Homewood Fire Department has ever Experienced," Chief Grabowski said. "We know that everyone is anxious to get answers about this situation, but, in the short term we may not have those answers."

Carey's father said his son did not know that there were oxygen tanks in the home when he was fighting the fire yesterday.

"They exploded and there was a flash, and he was gone instantly," he said.

Former Oak Park Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Duffy is a family friend of the Careys and remembers taking Carey to the fire house as a 5-year-old boy, showing him the fire engines and the pole and telling him war stories.

"He loved it even then," Duffy said. "I just wish I got to hear some of his stories, he was only getting started. He died a firefighter's death, trying to save someone's life."

Wendell Elias, 84, also died at the fire which broke out around 9 p.m. at 17622 Lincoln Ave., Homewood, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office and a Homewood Fire Department dispatcher. He was in a wheelchair when he was pulled from the home.

His wife escaped the blaze and was taken to a hospital, the fire officials said.

Another firefighter, a woman with the Homewood Fire Department, was listed in stable condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center this morning, a hospital spokesman said.

The elderly man, who was in a wheelchair when found by firefighters, died shortly after he was pulled out of his home, officials said.

Carey, of the 9200 block of South Richmond Street in Evergreen Park, was pronounced dead at 10:03 p.m. at Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, according to the medical examiner's office.

Fire officials would not confirm whether the resident and the injured firefighters were burned when oxygen tanks inside the home exploded.

Carey attended Brother Rice High School and graduated from Loras College in Dubuque, his family said.

He's the oldest of four children. His sisters Margaret and Annie and brother Kevin, and his mother Kathleen all also survive him.

A wake is planned for Monday.

Contributing: SouthtownStar, Sun-Times Media Wire

Republished with permission from the Sun-Times