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In Chicago, a heartfelt tribute was held on Friday as friends, family, and colleagues gathered to honor the memory of fallen firefighter Steven Decker.
A crowd comprising numerous firefighters and schoolchildren from nearby institutions assembled outside the church to pay their respects to Decker.
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The community marked the occasion by adorning trees with red ribbons and ringing bells, commemorating the life of the 61-year-old firefighter.
Decker tragically passed away during a biannual mandatory hose testing exercise after experiencing a medical emergency.
Having dedicated 30 years to the Chicago Fire Department, Decker is the second firefighter to lose his life in the line of duty this year. Firefighter Michael Altman also tragically died two months ago while fighting a blaze in Rogers Park.
Decker’s brother, says before he and Steve could drive they were already serving their community.
“Steve would run into my room, says ‘Let’s go we’ve got a fire,’ so we would get on our bikes and we would ride with turnout gear. I don’t know how we did it but we did. We just did it. Then when we got older and we got cars, that didn’t change. And for our wives, at that time it was our girlfriends, if they were with us and we got that call, those scanners were on 24 hours a day.”
Decker had a medical emergency while training last week and died. He was a 30-year veteran of the fire department.
Decker is the second Chicago firefighter to die while on-duty this year. CFD Firefighter Michael Altman was also killed two months ago while battling a fire in Rogers Park.
The Decker family said in lieu of flowers they are asking the community to consider a donation to Tunnels to Towers Foundation or a charity of choice in Steve’s memory.
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