Submitted by a fellow firefighter

Tom Cooper had been in the department for only seven months‚ barely enough time to experience the excitement that a rookie fire fighter experiences during his first few years on the job.

On the day that he was critically injured‚ he was riding on Engine 1 at Station 1. The crew had been at the corner of Chartres and Ruiz practicing hose lays and had just rolled up the last hose when they were dispatched to a trash fire shortly after noon. The rolled hose‚ used for the drill‚ was put on the tailboard of the engine where Cooper was riding. The crew responded down Ruiz St. en route to the location of the trash fire. As Engine 1 turned the corner at Hamilton and Congress‚ Cooper‚ possibly trying to prevent one of the rolled hoses from falling off‚ fell off himself suffering head injuries. Ambulance 1 transported Cooper to St. Joseph Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries two days later.