Overview
- A three-alarm blaze at 18 Treadway Road in Dorchester late Saturday night escalated into a mayday when a firefighter fell from a third-floor window after crews had knocked down heavy fire.
- The fallen firefighter, identified by Boston fire officials as Robert Kilduff Jr., was rushed to Boston Medical Center and pronounced dead early Sunday.
- Kilduff was a 24-year department veteran, a third-generation Boston firefighter and a U.S. Marine veteran who is survived by two adult children.
- City leaders and union officials praised Kilduff’s service, said residents in the house escaped safely, and announced he will receive the department’s highest honors as the community mourns.
- Officials have opened standard follow-up and investigative procedures to determine how the fall occurred, and the death recalls the last Boston line-of-duty fatalities in 2014 during the Back Bay fire.