Inquirer Editorial: Firefighter saw his job as putting others first
Michael Goodwin
Michael Goodwin seemed to always run toward danger to help others, no matter the risk.
The Philadelphia Fire Department captain died Saturday night while fighting a three-alarm fire in a Queen Village fabric store. Goodwin, 53, of the Far Northeast, had served in the department 29 years after a hitch in the Navy.
Friends described him as a natural-born leader who generously mentored young firefighters. Most importantly, they said, he cherished his family, including his mother, wife, two children, and two grandchildren.
Firefighters who knew him said the captain of Ladder 27 in South Philadelphia smiled easily, was calm, and good-natured. They didn't have to say he was brave. His actions throughout his career proved that.
The fire broke out in the Jack B. Fabrics store on the 700 block of South Fourth Street. Owner Bruce Blumenthal said he smelled smoke coming from the basement and found a box of collars and cuffs ablaze. He tried to put the fire out, but to no avail.
Firefighters arrived within four minutes of being called. Soon afterward, Goodwin climbed a ladder to the third-floor roof, which collapsed beneath him. He tumbled 20 feet to another roof.
The roof caved beneath Godlewski, who fell and was covered by debris. He staggered from the building and sadly announced, "I'm spent, and the captain's dead." Godlewski was treated for burns on his hands at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and released Sunday.
Goodwin's death is a reminder of the fire in a shutdown Kensington hosiery factory that killed fire Lt. Robert Neary and firefighter Daniel Sweeney. A year after the Kensington blaze, the city still needs to better regulate abandoned buildings.
Neary and Sweeney became trapped inside an adjacent furniture store that they had entered to make sure the fire was out. The closed hosiery factory had a long list of ignored building-code violations, which is likely the case with many of the 40,000 vacant properties within the city.
The Queen Village fire Saturday severely damaged the fabric shop and a boutique next door, probably putting them out of business for weeks, and displacing 17 apartment residents. Above all, the blaze took the life of a courageous firefighter who took it as his job to put himself in jeopardy to save others. Such virtue is too often treated as simply routine.
No comments:
Post a Comment