PARKVILLE, Md. - Baltimore County fire officials say a full investigation is under way into the death of a volunteer firefighter who was fighting a blaze in an apartment building.
Lutherville Volunteer Firefigter Mark Falkenhan
(Baltimore County Fire Department photo)
Forty-three-year-old Mark Falkenhan became trapped while searching for residents inside a third-story apartment during the four-alarm fire Wednesday night. He died at a hospital.
Falkenhan was a longtime Baltimore County firefighter and paramedic who retired from the department in 2006. Since then, he worked as an emergency services specialist for the U.S. Secret Service and continued to fight fires in a volunteer capacity.
Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost says Falkenhan was "well-known and well-liked." He leaves behind his wife and two children, ages 14 and 5.
He is the first firefighter to die in the line of duty in Baltimore County since 1984.