IAFF Local 4116 Member Jeff Dunn succumbs to Lou Gehrig’s Disease

Blogger allows me to write posts and save them as drafts. Until today I had one draft which I never published. The reason for that is that I sent an email out about this firefighter and never received a reply. Due to the delicate nature of the firefighters disposition I did not want to publish the post without knowing the firefighters current state of health. Well today I received that reply I was waiting for. Read on…

My original post left in draft form from February 26, 2006:

Jeff Dunn, a firefighter with Castle Rock Fire Department and a member of Local 4116, is battling A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). His brother and sister firefighters have assisted in raising money for Jeff Dunn and the ALS Foundation. If you get a chance check out the Castle Rock Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 4116 website and you can see the events they have held for their courageous brother who is battling the biggest fire of his life. On the site there is a link to an article the local news channel reported on Firefighter Jeff Dunn. Jeff and his wife, Cyrilla, have kept their heads up through their battle with ALS.

You may or may not know about Vernon Barnard, a Roanoke City firefighter, who died of Lou Gehrigs Disease in November 1997. While I was not here when Vernon was, I have heard the many stories about him. There are a lot of Firefighters here in Roanoke who remember Vernon, the fun times he had with the guys, and the…this is where I had stopped and saved it as a draft.

The email that I received today from the webmaster of CastleRock’s website stated that he apologized for not getting to my email sooner and that Jeff Dunn had passed away three days ago. He told me to look to their website for more information.

For those of you who do not know Lou Gehrigs disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), neurodegenerative disease that usually attacks both upper and lower motor neurons and causes degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord. Basically you loose all ability to control your body beginning with your muscles and ending with your organs.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Jeff Dunn’s family and friends.

There is no more of a point to make other than this is why firefighters across the Nation and Canada raise money each year for the Muscular Dystrophy Association to find a cure for this disease and others like it.

Addition: I completely overlooked the fact that Captain Brown died of Lou Gehrig’s disease as well just a couple of years ago. I apologize for the oversight, and I thank the individual for pointing it out.