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Top stories of 2019 | No. 1: Hero firefighter mourned

BERWICK, Maine — Firefighters and residents in Berwick and surrounding communities felt a deep sense of loss after the death of Fire Capt. Joel Barnes, who died shielding a fellow firefighter from flames during threestory apartment building fire March 1.

Barnes, 32, was hailed as a hero at his funeral for giving up his life to save his comrade.

The fire also displaced eight tenants in six apartment units. No tenants were injured. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness, ruled the building needed to be demolished. The institute inspects buildings whenever a firefighter is killed in the line of duty, according to Berwick Town Manager Stephen Eldridge. 

Barnes had no chance to escape from the third floor of the 10 Bell St. apartment building fire, leading to his death from “probable hyperthermia and/or hypoxia,” according to a report released April 5. Dr. Christine James of the New Hampshire chief medical examiner’s office determined the cause of death and ruled the manner of death was accidental. Hyperthermia is defined as the condition of having a body temperature greatly above normal, while hypoxia is a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply at the tissue level.

Available at: <https://www.fosters.com/news/20191230/top-

stories-of-2019--no-1-hero-firefighter-mourned>.

Accessed on: August 11, 2020 (Adapted).