Two DE Firefighters Killed in Collapse

Two firefighters have died and four have been injured in DE while battling a pre-dawn fire in a rowhouse.

Wilmington firefighters were called to Lakeview Road at 2:54 a.m. and found heavy fire from the rear of the two-story row home. Two others were treated at Christiana Hospital.

Two firefighters are in critical, but stable condition at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Wilmington Fire Chief Anthony Goode said during a press conference. After her children were rousted from sleep, they managed to escape out the back of the house. The chief says firefighters entered the home and started up the steps.

Leach and Fickes were working on the first floor of the home when the flooring collapsed, trapping them in the basement area of the home. The Delaware State Fire School said the Wilmington Fire Department will share more information when it is appropriate. His colleagues carried him, draped with an American flag.

“We ran out of the house with no clothes, in basically nothing”, resident Missy Napier told DelawareOnline.com.

Between sobs, she said she and the children were “okay”.

Additional firefighters arrived on the scene and managed to eventually get the fire under control and an investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.