The Stories of Houston Firefighters Lost in the Line of Duty

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(TNS) — While Houston firefighter deaths in the line of duty are rare, there has always been an effort to memorialize those that have lost their lives while responding to fires.

A Houston firefighter died Thursday after fighting a warehouse fire near the Greater East End. Marcelo Garcia, 42, was transported to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center after a wall collapsed on him while battling a warehouse fire near the 6600 block of Polk Street.

It was the second time in under three weeks that a firefighter was injured in the line of duty. In late October, a firefighter was hospitalized after falling from a second-story balcony while conducting a search at an apartment fire on Richmond Avenue.

In a press conference, Mayor John Whitmire said the city “lost such a fine firefighter in Garcia, and we’re not going to forget him, but we have to remember the people that took him out of that scene.”

“They’ll never be the same because they pulled a brother, a family member, out from underneath that fallen wall,” he said.

Garcia’s friends and colleagues remembered him as a cool-headed, smiling, hard worker.

“There’s a lot of wondering why and how — why him?” said Richard Gutierrez III, who worked with Garcia for his entire time at the station. “He made an impact in the community for sure. There really wasn’t a place that you could go where they didn’t know Marcelo.”

A website that tracks line-of-duty deaths in the Houston Fire Department lists 79 deaths in the department’s history. Eleven Houston firefighters died from 2000 to 2013 on duty while inside burning buildings. Here are some of their stories:

Matthew Renaud, Bill Dowling, Robert Bebee, Robert Garner and Anne Sullivan

In 2013, four Houston firefighters died while battling a blaze in a Southwest Inn motel fire. The fire killed Capt. Matthew Renaud, 35; engineer operator Robert Bebee, 41; firefighter Robert Garner, 29; and firefighter Anne Sullivan, 24. Capt. Bill Dowling, died in 2017 from injuries he suffered during the blaze.

The motel fire started around 9 a.m., and firefighters battled the blaze for nearly three hours. Less than 15 minutes after firefighters from stations 51 and 68 entered the hotel, part of the roof collapsed, killing the four firefighters and injuring multiple others.

Capt. Matthew Renaud was described as someone who had a great love for his family, friends, and his dog, Hoagie, according to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s website.

Engineer operator Robert Bebee loved life to the fullest and was dedicated to his family and friends.

Firefighter Robert Garner always enjoyed serving and helping others.

Firefighter Anne Sullivan was described as someone who was compassionate, courageous, loyal, disciplined, stubborn, honest, determined, dedicated, a self starter, funny, headstrong, optimistic, unshakable, trustworthy, tenacious, and spiritual.

Capt. Bill Dowling loved his job as a firefighter, almost as much as he loved being a devoted husband and father.

Daniel Groover

In 2014, Houston firefighter Daniel Groover died while battling a blaze in an unoccupied Kingwood home. Glover, 46, collapsed on the second floor of a home, where other firefighters had found him after he lost radio communication inside the burning structure.

Groover’s death marked a second time within a year that state and federal fire authorities had to investigate the death of a Houston Fire Department firefighter who perished in an unoccupied structure.

He was described as someone who saved the lives of children, dogs and everyone in between during his 21-year career. Firefighters are now required to spend time as paramedics; but Groover did so voluntarily for 17 years.

Thoman ‘Bill’ Dillion and Dwight Bazile

A year prior to the motel fire, Thomas ‘Bill’ Dillion died while responding to a small cooking fire at an apartment complex in southwest Houston.

After firefighters performed CPR on him, he was rushed to the West Houston Medical Center Hospital but pronounced dead within an hour. The cause of death was not directly related to the fire, officials said, but likely appeared to be cardiac arrest.

Members of the Houston Fire Department recalled the father of three as a bright and motivated man, someone who loved serving others — both on and off the job.

In 2015, Dwight Bazile died after after suffering what appeared to be a “cardiac event” while responding to a fire. Moments after responding to the burning home, Bazile, 57, was reported sitting on a stretcher when he collapsed.

To friends, he was refereed to as B.B., short for “baby boy.” Colleagues described Bazile as cool-headed and always willing to help, a leader who taught by example.

Lemuel ‘DJ’ Bruce

In 2020, Lemuel “DJ” Bruce was shot and killed by arson suspect Joshua De La Cerda in the Timbergrove neighborhood while probing while probing a recent string of fires in northwest Houston. De La Cerda died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

His death marked the the first Houston arson investigator killed in the line of duty.

Bruce had a servant’s heart, friends said. He was a Boy Scout and after high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served for five years and became the youngest Black Hawk helicopter crew chief to have his name on the side of the aircraft. He served in the Army National Guard, and then joined the Houston Fire Department.