Three Firefighters Killed

Three city firefighters were killed Tuesday when they were trapped inside a burning house.

Firefighters Patricia Conroy, Marc Kolenda and Thomas Brooks died Tuesday while searching the house for survivors. A stairway collapsed, trapping all three in the family room. The fire burned through the hose, leaving them without water to fight the blaze, Fire Chief Charles Dickinson said.

Their oxygen supplies ran out as they tried in vain to break through thick plastic windows with helmets and fire axes, firefighters’ union president Joseph King said.

The deaths were the worst disaster to hit the 120-year-old Fire Department since seven firefighters suffocated in a tank od wax in 1924.