Overview
- Steven Decker, a 30-year Chicago Fire Department veteran and engineer with Engine 71, died Thursday after a training exercise on North Kedzie in West Ridge.
- CFD said the drill was underway around 3 p.m., and Decker was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead.
- The department announced the loss on its social media account, and a late Thursday procession brought his body to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
- Television footage showed a casket draped in the Chicago flag carried past saluting firefighters and police, and Chicago police posted a public message of support.
- The cause has not been released, and he is the second Chicago firefighter to die on duty this year after what the union described as a twice-yearly hose test.