‘They are like family’: Chicago firefighters cope with unprecedented pair of deaths
Firefighters hug April 5, 2023, at the Chicago Fire Department station that houses Tower Ladder 10 on April 5, 2023.Lt. Jan Tchoryk, 55, who died Wednesday in a Gold Coast fire, and firefighter Jermaine Pelt, 49, who died Tuesday during a West Pullman blaze, were more like brothers to those who worked alongside them.The unprecedented consecutive deaths have touched many throughout the tight-knit department.
“Going back and hearing that bell go off again, having some of those triggers, does make it difficult to go back sometimes,” he said. Vargas thought of him as a father figure. Tchoryk is the closest person he’s known to die fighting a fire, he said. The brutal reality that resulted from what had seemed like a routine call hasn’t set in for many of the firefighters who knew the man, Vargas said.
Vargas said the death made him appreciate his wife and young children more. On Thursday, Tchoryk’s cousin Julian Korpyta recalled a Florida Gulf Coast fishing vacation the two took together in September.
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