Editor’s note: This story, originally published Jan. 11, 2025, at 10:19 p.m., was updated Jan. 12, 2025, to include the firefighter’s identity and other information from fire department officials. It was updated again Jan. 13, 2025 at 2:40 p.m. to remove that Higgins was a volunteer with Burtonsville. He was riding out of the Burtonsville station.
A Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) firefighter died Saturday evening after suffering a medical emergency while fighting a blaze at a house in Laurel, Fire Chief Corey Smedley said Saturday night in a press briefing.
The firefighter has been identified by MCFRS officials as Master Firefighter Christopher Higgins.
MCFRS crews responded shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday to a call for mutual aid assistance by Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department for a report of a house fire in the 15000 block of Bradford Drive in Laurel, according to Smedley and radio transmissions.
Smedley said an “emergency happened” and crews had to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts to Higgins, 46, who was assigned to the department’s Burtonsville station. He was transported to Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center in Silver Spring where he succumbed to his medical condition, Smedley said during the briefing at the hospital.
According to a statement from Smedley on Sunday, Higgins was performing his duties as a driver of a firetruck responding to the house fire. Although an investigation is ongoing, the statement said, an event occurred while Higgins was “throwing ladders to the house on Bradford Drive.”
During a press briefing at 3 p.m. Sunday, Smedley said there was a medical emergency “during emergency operations on the exterior of the structure.”
Crews immediately came to the firefighter’s aid, according to the statement, before he was transferred to the White Oak Medical Center.
Smedley said the department will be mourning the loss of one of its own for a long time.
“We’ll be trying to heal. We’ll be wrapping ourselves around the family members,” he said. “To our Montgomery County Fire Rescue Service Department, we’re here for you. We will help you through this. We’re all in this together.”
The body of the firefighter, who was a 23-year veteran of the department, was transported during a processional Saturday night to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner office in Baltimore to determine the cause of death, Smedley said.
An investigation of the incident will be a joint effort involving MCFRS, law enforcement and the medical examiner’s office, Smedley said.
County Executive Marc Elrich and other county officials attended the Saturday press conference.
“This is indeed a very sad and difficult situation for us and we offer our thoughts to the men and women of MCFRS,” Elrich said. “Montgomery County has lost one of its great firefighters.”
Elrich said he had met with the firefighter’s family members and reassured them that the county would support them.
“These moments are always tough, but we make it through difficult times because we have to and we will make it through this,” he said.
At the Sunday press briefing, Smedley said he didn’t know Higgins well, but in talking to his colleagues, he learned that Higgins was a “family man” and an “overall good person.”
“He was a pretty quiet guy, but he was a serious guy about his work,” Smedley said. “Not only was he a mentor in the department … it was in his blood to serve his community.”
Smedley said MCFRS has a family liaison for situations like these to help ensure Higgins’ family receives what it needs. MCFRS has also seen support, Smedley said, from elected officials and families of firefighters at the Burtonsville station.
“It’s pleasantly overwhelming of the support that the county has provided, that our regional partners have provided,” Smedley said.
