U.S. Denies Benefits For Pennsylvania Junior Firefighter; Killed On Bicycle En Route To Call
As a result of the denial of the appeal from the Brookhaven youth's mother, U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) said yesterday that he had introduced the Christopher Kangas Fallen Firefighter Apprentice Act.
It would retroactively prevent junior firefighters like Chris Kangas from being denied full firefighter status.
"I just can't believe this," Kangas' widowed mother, Julie Amber-Messick, said yesterday. "I just think my son would be crushed to think he wasn't [considered] a firefighter."
Amber-Messick, who got the news yesterday from Weldon and who still had not heard from the Justice Department, said she and her lawyer would consider whether to challenge the ruling in court.
After Amber-Messick's son was killed May 4, 2002, Brookhaven and the state paid her about $270,000 in benefits. But the Justice Department refused to approve $267,000 in federal benefits or let Kangas' name be added to the National Fallen Firefighters' Memorial in Emmitsburg, Md.
The Justice Department ruled that Kangas did not meet the definition of a public safety officer in the 1976 Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act.
The decision outraged firefighters throughout the region, especially since it was dated Sept. 11, 2002 - one year after the events of 9/11 that turned first responders into national icons.
At the appeals hearing in January at Brookhaven Fire Company No. 52, hundreds of volunteers cheered Weldon - who represents the district and who was a junior firefighter who became a fire chief - when he said that denying full benefits would send a terrible signal nationwide about public safety and homeland security.
In a statement yesterday, Weldon, founder and chairman of the U.S. House Fire and Emergency Services Caucus, said: "Christopher's death was a horrendous tragedy and marked the loss of a local hero... . I am appalled that the Department of Justice has once again refused Christopher Kangas his rightful status as a firefighter."
In its initial ruling after Kangas' death, the Justice Department said he "was not permitted to operate equipment or assist with fire suppression at fire scenes or enter hazardous atmospheres." Therefore, Kangas - an eighth grader at Northley Middle School - was just a trainee who "does not qualify as a public safety officer."
Members of Company 52 angrily responded that although Kangas could not go into burning buildings or be on the fire line, he did assist at fire scenes and was was involved in life-saving and life-threatening situations.
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