HEATHER CASEY
Firehouse.Com News
Firefighter Bernard D. Scannell, age 70, died of a heart attack Thursday
while responding to a car fire. He had 45 years of service with the Waterloo
Fire Department in Waterloo, New York.
Scannell had a massive heart attack while driving to the fire at about 8
p.m., said Chief Gary Daily.
“He was driving our heavy rescue,” Daily said. “About half way to the call
our captain reported one of our apparatus involved in a MVA. We turned the
original fire call over to a neighboring department and went to check on
it.”
Two firefighters from another Waterloo truck first arrived at the accident
scene and started CPR on Scannell. He was then transported to Geneva
Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10 p.m.
The minor accident took place at the intersection of routes 5, 20 and 414 in
Waterloo, where Scannell drove the apparatus into a flower bed dividing the
two lanes of traffic. “He managed to get it out of the main roadway,” Daily
said. The accident did not cause any injuries or damage to the apparatus.
Scannell leaves behind a wife, three grown children and several
grandchildren.
He was retired from Gould’s Pumps, where he worked as a tool grinder. He was
very involved in the fire department and was a stock car driver in his
younger days, Daily said.
The Waterloo Fire Department, which is over 200 years old, has 45 volunteers
and serves a population of 7000 in an area of 22 square miles.
The funeral took place Monday, September 25 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Mary's
Catholic Church located on Center Street in Waterloo, New York.
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