LODD Detriot FF Video

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Edited February 14, 2007 by nutty1

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

WOW.....................that is a very moving video

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Very nice video-thanks for sharing.

Stacy Howell

[DOC22 1]

WOW.....................that is a very moving video

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It sure is!

[HFD750 6]

Very moving. Rest in peace Brother.

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Detroit Firefighter's Wife Never Got to Tell Him: It's a Girl

............

Ben Schmitt

Detroit Free Press (Michigan)

Feb. 9--A five-months pregnant Andrea Torkos couldn't wait to tell her husband the good news after her ultrasound Wednesday morning -- their second child would be a girl.

She had planned to tell him as soon as he got home from his job as a Detroit firefighter.

But 47-year-old Joseph Torkos never came home.

Andrea's revelation Thursday was another in a long line of new details that emerged as investigators continued looking into the Wednesday evening traffic accident that killed Joseph Torkos -- along with the driver of the SUV that hit his fire rig -- as he and his colleagues were responding to an emergency call.

According to Detroit police spokesman James Tate, 31-year-old Robert Lee Waller III, who didn't have a license, was driving a Chevy Tahoe at speeds in excess of 80 mph when he crashed into the fire rig Torkos was driving as the rig was turning on to 14th Street from West Grand Boulevard about 6 p.m.

Waller also had a handgun in the SUV and a bag of cocaine in his pants pocket, Tate said. He died at the scene along with Torkos, who was thrown from the cab of his rig by the force of the impact and pinned beneath it.

Torkos reportedly was alive for a short time after the accident, telling a bystander who came to his aid: "Tell my family I love them. Tell my wife I love her."

He died when the rig was removed from atop his body. His funeral is Monday.

"He would have been very happy," Andrea Torkos, 35, said Thursday of the ultrasound's finding. "He was waiting to hear about it."

The baby is due in June.

A second firefighter, Lt. Walt Grysko, was thrown through the windshield and hospitalized at Henry Ford Hospital. He was in serious condition Thursday.

Two other firefighters were treated and released.

Two children who were riding in the SUV with Waller, including his 11-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old girl, were at Children's Hospital of Michigan in stable condition Thursday, Tate said. They had been on their way to a birthday party when the crash happened, Tate said.

Waller has a felony record: He was convicted of robbery in 2001 and still was on probation, according to the state Department of Corrections.

The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration is expected to conduct investigations today as to whether the firefighters wore seatbelts or the rig had functioning seatbelts.

"The best I can tell you is that it is under investigation," said Dan McNamara, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association. "There have been a lot of statements made."

One police investigator said neither firefighter had a seatbelt on.

Torkos, a native of Slovakia, had been on the job for 12 years, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

"He always wanted to do it," Andrea Torkos said. "He used to volunteer in Taylor, before we met."

Andrea Torkos, also a Slovakian native, met her husband 14 years ago at a dance in Sterling Heights. She was immediately smitten.

"He was charming. He was friendly and he was outgoing," she said.

They married several years ago and had their first daughter, Monika, 18 months ago.

Joseph Torkos was already taking her sledding and trying to find a place with small enough ice skates to rent for her.

"He lived for this," she said. "He always wanted a big family."

His firefighting colleagues often called Torkos a "gentle giant."

"He was just a wonderful guy," said Detroit Fire Battalion Chief Bob Dombrowski. "I know they always say that, but this guy was a quiet, beautiful person. I'm heartbroken. Just heartbroken."

Verdine Pierce, vice president of the fire fighters union, recalled Torkos' strong desire for a family.

"He was such a big guy, but so kind and soft," she said. "He always said that he was going to get him a family.

"That's just what he did."

Contact BEN SCHMITT at 313-223-4296 or .

Copyright © 2007, Detroit Free Press Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email , call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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Here's the local newscast on the story.....

The Local Newscast