NICOLE LOZARE
Firehouse.Com News

Two firefighters died during the course of their duties this week, making 1999 likely one of the deadliest years for the nation's bravest this decade.

A 50-year-old firefighter from Dresdan, Ohio suffered an apparant heart attack on Dec. 13 at the scene of a barnfire.

Friefighter/EMT Greg Rodgers of the Dresdon Volunteer Fire Department was filling a tanker at a hydrant with his son, the tanker's driver, when he collapsed. Rodgers was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

His wife, Julie, and 26-year-old son Justin, also volunteer with the Department. The family joined together in 1996.

Visitation is from 2-4 and 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 16 with funeral servics on Friday, Dec. 17 at the Dresdon United Methodist Church. Donations can be sent to the Department.

On Dec. 10, a 65-year-old Maryland firefighter died from injuries sustained as the result of a fire truck accident.

Roy K. Crago of the Fallston Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Company was responding to an explosion in an electrical transformer on Dec. 7 when his fire truck skidded down an embankment and struck a concrete drainage culvert. He died at a local hospital three days later.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation and donations can be sent to the Department.

The total number of reported line of duty deaths this year is 103, according to the best information available from the United States Fire Administration and Firehouse.Com reports.

All deaths are verified by the federal government before being formally declared 'line of duty' deaths and added to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial. Some 'reported' deaths are later determined not to be officially 'line of duty', while others are added that may not have been initially reported.

The last time firefighter fatalities surpassed 100 was in 1994, a year when 14 Bravest were killed in the Storm King Mountain wildfire, the largest single loss of firefighters this decade. The Worcester tragedy earlier this month ranks as the decade's second deadliest fire overall for firefighters. Only the 1972 Vendome hotel fire in Boston claimed more firefighters' lives -- 9 -- in a building fire in the last 30 years.

Over the past 20 years, both firefighter and civlian deaths have been on a steady decline..

Firefighter deaths reached a five-year low last year, with just 91, while civlian fire fatalities were at a 21-year low at 4,025, according to reports from the USFA and National Fire Protection Association.