Emergency responders escort fallen firefighters

All was quiet outside the state Medical Examiner's Office Monday morning aside from the noise of a helicopter circling overhead and nearby rush hour traffic.

The men and women who make up Delaware's emergency response teams in both Wilmington and beyond somberly raised their right hands in a slow salute at about 9 a.m. as the casket of fallen Wilmington firefighter Lt. Christopher Leach was carried from the building. The casket, draped in an American flag, was carried by his fellow Wilmington firefighters.

Tears rolled down from underneath sunglasses as men and women held their stance until the call to release their arms. A few men who had been carrying Leach's casket hugged each other tightly next to Engine 6 before boarding the fire truck to escort Leach's body. Fire trucks from Wilmington and Talleyville escorted Leach to his funeral home.

It was one of two emotional goodbyes Monday morning, as emergency responders for agencies throughout the state escorted Leach and Senior Firefighter Jerry Fickes to their respective funeral homes. Funeral services have not been announced.

The Wilmington Fire Department will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. Monday at fire headquarters on South Heald Street. Further details on the press conference have not been released.

South Adams Street near Wilmington's Forensic Science Laboratory was closed to traffic as city firefighters and police from different agencies send off the fallen firefighters.

Earlier this year, volunteer firefighter Tim McClanahan died during a training exercise in Sussex County. His procession from the state Medical Examiner's Office in Wilmington back down to Lewes stretched miles and shut down portions of I-95 in the process.

Leach and Fickes died while battling a rowhome fire in Canby Park on Saturday when the first floor collapsed under them. The home, on Lakeview Road, left multiple firefighters trapped in the basement.

Firefighters Ardythe Hope and Brad Speakman were transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pennsylvania, and remain hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Two others were treated for injuries related to the fire.

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There are few details surrounding the cause and origin of the fire. The Wilmington Fire Department has turned over the investigation to the State Fire Marshal's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Investigators continued to pore over the scene of the fatal fire Monday morning, digging through what was left of the charred rowhome along Lakeview Street.

Crime scene tape was down on the block so traffic was able to get by. The house itself resembled little more than a brick shell, with the interior walls, blackened and charred, visible from the street.

Many Wilmington Fire Department vehicles sat parked on the block and bouquets of flowers were wedged into the chain link fence in front of the home. Plastic kids' toys were strewn through the yard, along with bags of used coffee cups and bagged trash from more than two days' worth of investigation.

Reporter Esteban Parra contributed to this report.

Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.

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