Youngwood firefighter remembered on anniversary of death
The year since Youngwood firefighter E. Jeffrey “Lance” Wentzel was killed when he was struck by a freight train while searching for a woman missing along Turtle Creek in North Versailles has gone by “in the blink of an eye,” his widow said Sunday after a memorial service at the Youngwood Fire Hall.
Wentzel, 57, who had been a member of the Youngwood Hose Co. No. 1 for 35 years, was remembered in a memorial service Sunday afternoon as good man, father, husband and grandfather. His widow, Judi Wentzel, said the service, attended by about 50 firefighters, friends and members of Wentzel's family, was “beautiful.”
The memorial service for Wentzel was timed for the one-year anniversary of when he was killed on March 22, 2014, while walking along Norfolk Southern Corp. railroad tracks underneath the Westinghouse Bridge. The fire company conducted the service around the jet black granite memorial to Wentzel that stands outside the fire hall at the corner of Second and Chestnut streets.
Youngwood's fire siren blew at 5:38 p.m., the moment that Youngwood fire Chief Lloyd Crago said Wentzel was struck as he searched for Ruth Ann Mullennix, 55, of Wilmerding, who had been missing since March 17, 2014.
“It's just tragic. We were trying to help out,” when the accident occurred, Crago said.
Crago said he was running toward Wentzel when the firefighter was struck, and Crago saw the time on his cellphone. Wentzel was working with a bloodhound team to search for the woman, and they were preparing for one last attempt that day to search the area. Police believed Mullennix had gone into the water, the fire chief said. Her body was not found until April 9 in Turtle Creek, near where it empties into the Monongahela River at Braddock.
Kelly Julian and her husband, Brian, of North Huntingdon, attended the memorial service with their search and rescue dog, Rusty, a fox red Labrador retriever, who was working with Wentzel when the accident occurred.
“Lance was headed back from our search,” when he was struck, Brian Julian said.
John M. Storey Sr., Youngwood fire company chaplain, asked that those in attendance keep Wentzel's family in their prayers.
“It's been a long year,” Storey said.
As the fire company's siren was activated, Wentzel's sister, Bonnie Kucenic of Hempfield, knelt before the memorial, which contains Wentzel's picture, a Bible verse and four words: Honor, Dedication, Sacrifice and Courage. The memorial was dedicated in early December,.
“It's been very tough. It was a hard thing to deal with,” Kucenic said, recalling that she was on the phone with her brother's wife when news of the accident was broadcast on television, and she “just figured it out” that it was Wentzel who was killed.
Joe Napsha is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.
