A Wisconsin firefighter died after competing in the swimming portion of an Ironman competition over the weekend.
Madison engineer Todd Mahoney was one of two people who was pulled from Lake Monona during the Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin event Sunday, the city said Tuesday. He was taken to SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital, where he was in critical condition. He later died Tuesday, according to the city.
Mahoney was a nine-year veteran of the Madison Fire Department, and he was serving at Station 1 in the city's downtown. He also was an occasional chief’s aide for Command Car 31. He had served at the department's Station 9 and also was a paramedic at Station 8. He is survived by his wife and three sons.
The Dane County Medical Examiner's Office is investigating Mahoney's cause of death, the city stated.
This is the second off-duty firefighter who died after competing in the swimming portion of a triathlon this month. Philadelphia firefighter Dennis "Denny" McDaniels, 36, was finishing the swimming stretch of Cape May's Escape the Cape Triathlon in New Jersey when an event volunteer discovered him unresponsive in the water. He was pulled to a park's beach near the course, and once on land, McDaniels was taken to Cape Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
McDaniels, a 12-year veteran with the Philadelphia Fire Department, was stationed with Ladder 15 in the city's Frankford neighborhood. Before that, he worked in the South Philadelphia neighborhood.
