Tonya Burns,
Firefighter
Los Angeles County (CA) Fire Department
Nov 22, 1960 - Aug 12, 2009
Cause of
Death: Long time illness.
Additional Information: Survived by
husband; 2 children; 6 siblings. She had
over 21 years of service as a LA County
Firefighter Specialist, one of the first
African-American women firefighters in
LA. In 2004, Burns was inducted into the
Chico Sports Hall of Fame.
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Survived by husband; 2 children; 6
siblings. She had over 21 years of
service as a LA County Firefighter
Specialist, one of the first
African-American women firefighters in
LA.
Racheal Wilson,
Firefighter/Paramedic
Baltimore
City (MD) Fire Department
LODD
- February 8, 2007
Age: 29
Cause of
Death: Wilson collapsed during a
training exercise that her department
was conducting in a group of rowhouses.
She was later transported to the
Maryland Shock and Trauma Center where
she succumbed to her injuries.
Additional
Information: The mother of two, Wilson
was a firefighter-paramedic in training
and had begun her training in November.
Crystal
Golden-Jefferson, Firefighter/Paramedic
Los
Angeles County (CA) Fire Department
LODD - July 20, 2005
Age: 41
Cause of
Death: Complications associated with the
development of work-related
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Additional Information: A
mother of one daughter and a 19-year
veteran, she was the first female hired
by the City of Inglewood
(CA) Fire Department, and the third
African-American female in the LA
County Fire Department. The Crystal
Golden-Jefferson Furniture Safety & Fire
Prevention Act (AB 706), named in
her honor, updates California's
furniture fire safety standards to
deliver equivalent fire safety without
the use of the most toxic,
cancer-causing fire retardants.
Jaime Foster, Firefighter
City
of Los Angeles (CA) Fire Department
LODD
- August 14, 2004
Age: 25
Cause of Death: The first
probationary member and the first woman
to die in the Line-of-Duty on the Los
Angeles Fire Department.
As companies were clearing a
working fire incident, Firefighter
Foster jumped on to the tailboard of the
engine to assist in backing the
apparatus out of a cul-de-sac. She
fell to the street and lay motionless.
The engine slowly backed over her upper
body and did not stop until her lifeless
body appeared in front of the
apparatus. Firefighter Foster was
declared deceased at Tarzana Hospital.
Foster was assigned to Light Force
73 and was just completing the third of
a four month of training period.
Additional Information:
Jamie Foster was born in
Inglewood, the second of three
sisters. While working in the emergency
room one of her patients, believed to
be a firefighter with a broken leg,
inspired her to become a firefighter.
Brenda D. Cowan,
Lieutenant
Lexington (KY) Fire Department
LODD - February 13, 2004
Age:
Unknown
Cause of Death: On the first
tour of duty after being formally
promoted to Lieutenant, Cowan was shot
and killed while responding to a
domestic violence call.
Additional Information: The
first A 12-year veteran and the first
African-American and Lexington Fire
Department female career firefighter to
die in the line of duty. The daughter
of the Reverend Tabb Frank Scott Cowan
Sr. and Ella Irene Dawson Cowan, she is
also survived by five siblings.
In March 2005 the Brenda D.
Cowan Act, Senate Bill 217, unanimously
passed the Kentucky Senate. The bill
would amend KRS 508.025, relating to
assault in the third degree, to provide
that a person is guilty of assault in
the third degree when he causes or
attempts to cause physical injury to
emergency medical services personnel,
organized fire department members, and
rescue squad personnel.