WARSAW, Ill. - Warsaw Volunteer Fire Department firefighter Todd "Bubba" Dicks died Wednesday while responding to a vehicle accident southeast of Warsaw, Ill.
Dicks, 37, was riding in the fire truck to the scene of a Warsaw school bus and pickup truck crash at the intersection of the Basco blacktop and Sutter Road.
He started showing signs of respiratory distress enroute, about two miles away from the crash scene, according to Fire Chief Steve Siegrist, who was at work in Keokuk at the time.
When firefighters reached the crash scene, they asked for help from Emergency Medical Service personnel who were responding to the bus/pickup truck accident.
The press release from the Warsaw Fire Department said that EMTs from Warsaw and Hamilton, Ill., and paramedics from Carthage, Ill., immediately provided emergency assistance to Dicks. He was taken by ambulance to Keokuk Area Hospital, but died a short time later. (See obituary page 2 today).
Siegrist said "with great sadness" that Dicks is the first firefighter to die in the line of duty in the history of the Warsaw Fire Department which was founded in 1867.
Dicks was a Warsaw city employee, working part-time in the streets and water departments. He also served as the animal control officer for Warsaw.
"Todd was a very versatile man," said Warsaw Mayor Robert "Busher" Frank. "He worked for the city at the water plant, in the streets department and was our dog catcher. He was an active volunteer in the community and he will be missed."
Siegrist said Dicks had been in the volunteer fire fighting department four years.
He said arrangements with full firefighter rites are made, with visitation today from 5 to 9 p.m. at Lamporte Funeral Home, 450 S. Fourth St., Warsaw.
"There will be a fireman walk-through at visitation at 7 p.m.," said Siegrist. "Any firefighters wanting to join us can meet at the fire station or funeral home at 6:30 tonight."
Warsaw Fire Station is in the second block of South Fifth Street off Main Street.
The funeral service with firefighter memorial rites is at 11 a.m. Saturday at Warsaw's Trinity United Methodist Church, 510 Crawford St.
"We'll have the full firefighter service with firemen in apparatus and ladder trucks and flags," said Siegrist.
Burial is in Fletcher Cemetery, 10 miles south of Warsaw, on the Tioga Road, west off of Highway 96.
