News headline from the Los Angeles County Fire Department:

Fire Fighter Specialist Arnaldo “Arnie” Quinones, 34, was killed in the line of duty on Sunday, August 30, 2009, during the Station Fire, when his emergency response vehicle went over the side and fell 800 feet into a steep canyon during fire suppression activities protecting the Camp 16 in the City of Palmdale.

Quinones joined the Los Angeles County Fire Department on August 6, 1998, as a member of the Department’s call firefighter program. He was assigned to Fire Station 84 in Battalion 11, where he remained until November 2000, when he was accepted into the Department’s Fire Academy as a member of the 104th Recruit Class.

Upon graduation in February 2001, he became a Fire Fighter and was assigned to serve the public from Fire Station 24 in the City of Palmdale. In August 2001, he transferred to Fire Station 153 in the City of Covina. In March 2002, he returned to Fire Station 24 and served there until November 2003, when he transferred to Fire Station 82 in the City of La Canada Flintridge.

In December 2005, he was promoted to the rank of Fire Fighter Specialist, and joined the crew at Camp 16, which was his last assignment.

Quinones is survived by his wife, Loressa, who is expecting their first child in the next several weeks, and his mother, Sonia Quinones.

He is also survived by his wife and mother, and by his brother Oswaldo Quinones, Jr. with whom he was extremely close.

Fire Captain Ted Hall was also died fighting the Station Fire.

Filed under Headline

Monday, August 31, 2009

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