Posted by Associated Press (165.247.13.214) on September 30, 2001 at 10:08:41:
Panhandle firefighter dies while wife
helping in New York
Saturday, September 29, 2001
Associated Press
BAKER ÷ A firefighter died after helping put out a blaze in his home that began while he was on
the phone with his wife, a paramedic who was working in New York in the aftermath of the Sept. 11
attacks.
Neil Woodward, a captain with the Blackman Volunteer Fire Department, died late Wednesday at
North Okaloosa Medical Center in Crestview after collapsing in an ambulance en route from his
home in this Florida Panhandle town.
Woodward had complained of chest pains. Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Berkland said
Friday that an autopsy confirmed he died of a heart attack and smoke inhalation was not a factor.
Woodward was in the living room on the phone with his wife, Cindy, when he heard the smoke
detector, said Blackman Fire Chief Kenneth Finkel.
As the alarm went off, Woodward also noticed heavy smoke coming from a bathroom. He awoke
his 5-year-old daughter and they went outside to wait for other firefighters to respond, Finkel said.
The fire was confined to the bathroom and caused only minor damage, but a half-hour later
Woodward began having chest pains.
After her husband's death, Cindy returned from New York, where she had been part of a Florida
emergency team providing medical assistance to workers digging through the remains of the World
Trade Center.
"Her heart is completely broken," said family friend Shane Stewart. "She was dealing with one hell
up there and then she gets called back home to deal with another one."
Woodward, who also worked part time as a 911 dispatcher in Andalusia, Ala., had been with the
department for four years, Finkel said.