Firefighter Kenny Hedrick Morningside Volunteer Fire Department (MD) 1992

Cathy Hedrick's son, Kenny, was killed on January 12, 1992, while responding to a local fire. They were the first ones on the scene; expectations were high as there were people still in the burning house. With adrenaline pumping, Kenny went into the burning house, alone. Going into a burning house alone is not what he was trained to do, but lives were at jeopardy. This was the first of several terrible "accidents." He slipped down the basement stairs; there was a flashover. He was unable to find his way back to those stairs, so he retreated into a back room. As he felt his face mask soften, the face mask plastic turned "milky" he reached up to either pull the mask off or to move it ... when his thumb punctured a hole in the melting plastic, this caused a rapid loss of his remaining air. There was a rush of toxic gases and heat coming through the opening. This deadly mix caused him to suffocate.

Kenny would be found by his best friends in the fetal position in the back room, dead. Kenny had on all his protective turn out gear. All his equipment did what it was designed to do...was it enough? Cathy relives this story vividly and asks this question frequently.