Revere firefighter dies of heart attack while answering call - By Associated Press, 12/21/1999 15:15
REVERE, Mass. (AP) A third-generation Revere firefighter died early Tuesday after suffering a heart attack after responding to a prank false alarm.
Theodore Ferrante, 43, was stricken with chest pains after responding to an alarm at a high-rise building on Revere Beach shortly before midnight. The alarm turned out to be a prank.
Ferrante's chest pains worsened after returning to the station, and he was taken to Whidden Hospital in Everett, where he died around 3 a.m. He left a wife and three children.
Ferrante's father, Deputy Fire Chief Theodore Ferrante Jr., had also died of a heart attack in the line of duty. After his father's death in 1979, Ferrante became one of the first people in the state to benefit from a law that gave job preferences to the children of firefighters who died on duty, said Chief Daniel Doherty.
His grandfather, Capt. Frank Ferrante, served almost 40 years on the Revere force. Ferrante's two brothers, Capt. Steven and Lt. Frank, are also in the department.
Ferrante, who had been a Revere firefighter for nearly 20 years, had no history of heart troubles and was in excellent physical health, Doherty said. A funeral was planned for Thursday.
The death, which comes less than three weeks after six Worcester firefighters died in a warehouse fire, was hitting the department hard, Doherty said. ''They're kind of in shock,'' he said.
About 60 Revere firefighters had gone to Worcester to help in the search for the men, Doherty said. The chief said it's not uncommon for firefighters to die while responding to pranks. In 1986, a Revere firefighter died while fighting a grass fire that had been set by some juveniles.
''I don't think they realize the harm in what their actions are, but we take it in stride,'' Doherty said. ''It all comes with the job.''