Injuries

A volunteer firefighter who joined the Reisterstown Volunteer Fire Company as a teenager more than a decade ago died Thursday of injuries sustained in a fire last week that also killed another man. Gene Kirchner, 25, died at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, officials said. "Everybody is extremely shocked by this," said Craig Hewitt, assistant chief of the fire company. "They're missing Gene right now. He was a very key part of our fire company, and he will be greatly missed. " Kirchner was one of the first firefighters to respond to the house fire on Hanover Road early on the morning of April 24. He tried to save a man trapped inside, officials said.

The Ravens used both of their sixth-round picks to add depth to positions that they had already addressed in the draft. With the 200 th overall pick, they selected Notre Dame defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the Fighting Irish's loss to Alabama in the BCS championship game. Three picks later, they grabbed Ryan Jensen, an offensive guard out of Colorado State-Pueblo. Earlier in the day, the Ravens took Ohio State defensive end/outside linebacker John Simon (fourth round)

Cory Dobyns has sat out Towson's past two contests, and the sophomore attackman's status could remain the same for Saturday night's regular-season finale against St. Joseph's at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson. Tigers coach Shawn Nadelen said Dobyns remains a game-time decision as he continues to deal with an unspecified injury suffered in a 9-5 victory over Massachusetts on April 6. The team has already clinched the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Colonial Athletic Association tournament and could elect to rest Dobyns for another weekend, but Nadelen said if Dobyns is available, he will play.

Earlier this week, C.J. Brown returned to Maryland football's depth chart. The quarterback - Maryland's presumptive starter - is working his way back from an ACL tear suffered during last August's training camp. His inclusion on the depth chart confirmed what the team had hoped and anticipated - that Brown is ready to go.  He was limited to 7-on-7 drills during recently completed spring practices. On Thursday, coach Randy Edsall elaborated on the condition of Brown, who will be a fifth-year senior next season.

Firefighters battling a blaze in a small rowhome in West Baltimore on Thursday evening discovered the body of a man in a second-floor bedroom, said Roman Clark, spokesman for the city Fire Department. The man has not yet been identified, and a neighbor said she had never seen anyone go in or out of the home at 615 Claymont Avenue. The homes flanking it were vacant and no other injuries were reported, Clark said. It has not yet been determined whether the man was a resident, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

A firefighter sustained a minor knee injury in a two-alarm blaze at a home in Southeast Baltimore early Thursday morning, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. Firefighters responded to the 3700 block of East Pratt Street — near the border of the city's Highlandtown and Baltimore Highlands neighborhoods — about 12:20 a.m. and began fighting the fire, which had extended to an adjacent vacant home and another occupied home, said Captain Roman Clark, a department spokesman.

At one point Saturday, City Hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va., was so overwhelmed with patients injured on the Tough Mudder obstacle course that it had to turn people away from its emergency room. Two people who participated in the race in nearby Gerrardstown, W.Va., suffered heart attacks, according to Teresa McCabe of West Virginia University Hospitals-East, which runs City Hospital. Ten people had hypothermia, orthopedic injuries or head injuries. And two people were treated for drowning, including Avishek Sengupta, a 28-year-old Ellicott City man who died Sunday.

Zach Palmer's availability for No. 13 Johns Hopkins' home contest against Navy at Homewood Field in Baltimore this Saturday is still uncertain. The senior attackman suffered an unspecified injury during practice on April 10 and did not play in the team's 7-4 upset of No. 6 Maryland last Saturday. Asked about Palmer's status, coach Dave Pietramala replied, “Day to day.” Pietramala declined to say whether he was optimistic that Palmer would return for Saturday's game. “I don't know one way or the other,” Pietramala said.

Two women and one man were shot in an incident at a bar in Essex early Friday morning, according to Baltimore County Police. Officers responded to the Loft bar in the 100 block of Back River Neck Road at about 12:03 a.m. for reports of gunfire and found one woman suffering from a gunshot wound, according to police. Another woman and a man suffering from gunshot wounds in the same incident later arrived at an area hospital for treatment, police said. None of the victims are considered to have life-threatening injuries, police said.

After two days of heavy sedation, Erika Brannock awoke Wednesday morning in her hospital bed to dramatic and gruesome news: Her left leg had been amputated below the knee, the only medical option for a team of surgeons handling traumatic injuries from the Boston Marathon bombings. The 29-year-old Towson preschool teacher took the news with courage, relatives said. Then, unable to speak because of a ventilator tube, she wrote out a simple message: She wanted to see photos of her students.