A Utah fire captain and other firefighters unraveled a 70-year-old mystery involving the death of an assistant chief from her department.
South Salt Lake Assistant Chief George Plant suffered a fatal heart attack during a fire call in June 1953, although details of his death weren't known. But when Capt. Lyndsie Hauck visited the Fallen Firefighters Memorial at the National Fire in Emmitsburg, MD, she couldn't find Plant's name among the bricks memorializing firefighters who died in the line of duty, KSL-TV reports.
“I walk into the office, and say, ‘Hey, I want to know all I can about Chief Plant'," Hauck told the news outlet. “So she types on her computer, and nothing. There’s no record of him.”
That set Hauck on a quest for proof that Plant had indeed died in the line of duty.
A battalion chief's wife was able to locate the assistant chief's death certificate at the library, and a search of a cemetery uncovered his gravestone. Hauck's research also shed light on the details surrounding Plant's death, discovering he had been on the ground trying to force water out of a faulty pumper.
“He was actually under the engine, holding pieces together," she told KSL. "Had Chief Plant not done that — and the stress that he was under, enough to cause a heart attack — we could be talking about multiple line of duty deaths.”
“I mean, let’s be honest. This guy — underneath an engine, holding things together — so that the guys can fight fire. That’s a hero," Hauck added.
A post on social media brought the final pieces Hauck needed. A retired firefighter had a newspaper article about the 1953 incident, and someone else passed along the phone number of Plant's daughter.
“I was there. I was there that day, and I remember looking out the window and waving at him,” Joyce Hicks, Plant's daughter, told KSL. “And that was the last we saw of him.”
Not only could Hicks provide a witness statement Hauck needed, she also had a signed affidavit from her mother concerning Plant's death during the 1953 fire.
Hicks is Plant’s daughter and is one of several family members who could provide the final piece: the witness statement. Plant's daughter also was grateful of the effort by Hauck and the other South Salt Lake firefighters to have Plant memorialized in Maryland.
“Finally, they had recognized my dad,” Hicks said. “Someone had.”
With those last pieces, Hauck's detective work had paid off. She passed along her findings and research to memorial officials, who accepted it. And after 70 years, Plant's name made it onto a brick at the Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
“He’s far more of a firefighter than I’ll ever be,” Hauck told KSL. “Hero, man. I don’t know what else to say.”
