Baltimore City Fire

Edward Littleton, a retired city firefighter and former Northeast Baltimore resident, died of congestive heart failure Friday at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Ga. He was 86. Born and raised in South Baltimore, Mr. Littleton attended parochial schools. He served in the Army from 1945 to 1946. He joined the Baltimore City Fire Department in 1946. Assigned for most of his career to Engine 56 in Northeast Baltimore, he retired in 1971. He lived in Daytona Beach, Fla., from 1971 until 1981, when he moved to Columbus.

James E. Smith, 71, firefighter for city James Edward Smith, a retired Baltimore firefighter and model railroader, died of cancer Oct. 12 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 71. Mr. Smith was born in Strasburg, Va., raised in Hampden and graduated from Thomas Edison Vocational Senior High School on Howard Street. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1949 and was assigned as a driver in the motor pool at Camp Pendleton in California. He was discharged as a sergeant in 1952. Mr. Smith joined the Baltimore City Fire Department in 1957 and was assigned to Truck Co. 5 at Central and North avenues.

HERBERT LEO WILHELM, 84, of King George, passed away on Saturday, November 29, 2003 at Mary Washington Hospital. Mr. Wilhelm was a retired Lieutenant with the Baltimore City Fire Department, and a World War II veteran with the 1st Marine Division. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Dorothea Wilhelm; a daughter, Janice Cooper and her husband Dennis of Kinsale; a son, Barry Wilhelm and his wife Ruth of Hanover, Pennsylvania; a sister, Alma Schutte of Oklahoma; a brother, Charles Wilhelm of Baltimore, Maryland; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

More than 500 firefighters from Baltimore and surrounding communities will receive medals today to recognize their response to last July's train tunnel fire and to other emergencies in the past year. The Baltimore City Fire Department will award medals to 572 individuals, including firefighters from the city and Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties, state police and employees of Draeger, a fire equipment company that provided crews with longer-lasting breathing apparatus during the tunnel fire.

A stubborn four-alarm fire in a vacant Highlandtown warehouse kept firefighters busy for hours yesterday as billowing black smoke from Southeast Baltimore fanned out across the city.There were no injuries, although one of the 100 or so firefighters who fought the blaze was treated for muscle spasms.The fire began shortly before 10 a.m. in the 100 block of S. Oldham St. Michael Maybin, a spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Department, said about 50 pieces of equipment were used to fight the fire for nearly 3 1/2 hours before it was controlled.

A woman died and five others, including two firefighters, were injured as an early-morning fire raged through a Northwest Baltimore home yesterday. The blaze was reported at 4:27 a.m. in a wood-frame house in the 4400 block of Wakefield Road in Forest Park. An elderly woman -- whose name was not released -- was declared dead at the scene, said Baltimore City Fire Department deputy spokesman Kevin Cartwright. Another woman was taken to Sinai Hospital in critical condition from burns and smoke inhalation.

Services for John W. Grill Sr., who retired as a pump operator for the Baltimore City Fire Department in 1977, will begin at 10 a.m. today at the A. Alan Seitz Funeral Home, 3818 Roland Ave.Mr. Grill, who was 72 and lived on Roland Avenue in Hamden, died Tuesday at Union Memorial Hospital after a stroke.He retired in 1977 from Engine 15 in downtown Baltimore and also had served with Engine 25 at Gold and McCulloh streets and Engine 45 on Cross Country Boulevard.The Baltimore native was educated in the public schools and served in the Navy as an electrician's mate on a destroyer escort during World War II.Fond of golf, he played at local public courses and made a hole in one on the 11th hole of the Mount Pleasant Golf Course in 1984.

Ninety-five percent of the city firefighters who participated in a no-confidence vote on Baltimore's fire chief disapprove of his leadership, union officials announced yesterday. Union leaders mailed paper ballots to 1,629 of their members, and said that 53 percent responded. Ninety-five percent - or 820 - of those who voted supported the no-confidence measure, officials said. "In order to create the type of morale problem that we have takes effort," said Capt. Stephan G. Fugate, president of the fire officers union at a news conference where the results were announced.

A rare example of Baltimore's architectural history was nearly lost several years ago when an 1871 firehouse on West Mulberry Street was torn down to make way for redevelopment. It was the only firehouse in Baltimore -- and one of the last surviving buildings in the city -- whose first-floor front facade was made of cast iron, a popular local building material in the 1800s, but not in use today. A quick thinking preservationist saw the demolition work under way and managed to salvage the largest cast-iron pieces before they were carted off for scrap metal.

WASHINGTON -- Without the federal government's summer jobs program, 20-year-old Anthony Ron Smith of Baltimore says, he would probably be searching for a hard-to-find job as an entry-level carpenter. Instead, thanks to a job last summer at the Baltimore City Fire Department, Mr. Smith is slated to continue his education at the fire academy."I look to the program as a stepping stone," he said yesterday. The program, he said, allowed "me to make a brighter contribution to the community."Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and U.S. Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich, along with others involved in the summer jobs program, kicked off the 1995 session yesterday by praising President Clinton for retaining the initiative, which Republicans had sought to kill, and by calling for businesses to help.