Court Rules on Junior Firefighter Death
A judge has ruled that a junior firefighter that was killed while responding to a fire call was legally a firefighter (from The Philadelphia Inquirer via FireFightingNews.com).
Christopher Kangas' mother can say that now and have it mean something - legally.Until this week, the U.S. Justice Department had denied the 14-year-old junior firefighter that proud title, literally devaluing the life of the Brookhaven boy who was struck and killed four years ago by a car while riding his bicycle to answer a fire alarm.
Without the title, he was not eligible for federal death benefits, and, most important to his mother and his fellow firefighters, not eligible to have his name inscribed on the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
But Monday, after years of hearings and appeals, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Marian Blank Horn said, in effect, he deserved to be treated better.
"Christopher Kangas died 'in the line of duty' and was a 'firefighter' authorized to be at a fire scene and perform duties as part of a team engaged in the 'suppression of fires' at the time of his death," she wrote in Washington.
This was the right thing to do. Trainee, junior firefighter, full-time firefighter, volunteer firefighter - it doesn't matter what your "title" is. If you are part of the department, then you are a firefighter.
