Martin County loses firefighter, first to die in line of duty
February 27th, 2009 by Ana X. Ceron
Fred Pierno in July 2007, when he was working to put out a small brush fire near the Holly Creek subdivision, just off Jensen Beach Boulevard. Photo by Vada Mossavat.
STUART — Ferdinando “Fred” Pierno died this week surrounded by about two dozen of his brothers.
Fellow firefighters stood at Pierno’s bedside Wednesday as the Martin County Fire Rescue veteran lost a battle with Hepatitis C complications at his Port St. Lucie home.
“He died with his friends and his crew,” fire rescue spokesman Jon Belding said on Friday.
Afterward, Pierno’s friends remembered his commitment to Martin County Fire Rescue. Others said they considered the Vietnam War veteran a hero.
But Pierno, 55, also leaves behind a legacy of a different sort — he is the department’s first to die in the line of duty.
No one knows how Pierno contracted the Hepatitis C virus, but a state law says that unless it can be proved otherwise, it is presumed that paramedics and other emergency responders who test positive have been infected on the job — where blood can spatter across a medic’s face, or a needle can prick a police officer’s finger.
“The dangerous part of our job isn’t just burning buildings but quite often things you cannot even see,” said John Davidson, a 25-year firefighter and president of the Martin firefighters union.
The hepatitis C virus is a liver disease whose symptoms may include jaundice, abdominal pain, nausea and fatigue. It usually is contracted through infected blood but also can spread through unprotected sex with an infected person or from mother to baby, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Fred Pierno
“Even though we do our best to educate and protect our guys from such exposure, sometimes these things are unavoidable,” Davidson said.
Pierno learned he was infected with the virus in 2004, and two years later he was diagnosed with liver cancer, Belding said.
On Wednesday Pierno became the 13th firefighter in the nation, and the seventh in the state, whose passing was classified as a line of duty death due to a hepatitis infection, according to fire officials.
On Monday, as many as 2,000 firefighters from around the state are expected to converge in Martin County to celebrate Pierno and his 18-year career with the local fire rescue department.
They will start at Jensen Beach, where a service will be held at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church and end at Forest Hills Memorial Park in Palm City.
Following tradition, a procession of fire rescue vehicles will pass by where Pierno worked: Station 18 on Britt Road and Station 16 on Savannah Road.
Pierno was a member of his department’s hazardous materials special operations response team for most of his time with Martin County Fire Rescue.
Before that, Pierno served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.
His survivors include his daughter, Jennifer Pierno, of California, and two brothers, Anthony Pierno, of New York, and Louis Pierno, of Port St. Lucie.
“You never want to lose anyone on the job,” Martin County Fire Rescue Chief Tom Billington said, “but to lose someone of Freddie’s caliber and decency makes the loss all the more crushing.”
Staff researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this story.
-ana_ceron@pbpost.com
Tags: Fred Pierno, Hepatitis C, John Davidson, Jon Belding, Martin County Fire Rescue, Tom Billington, U.S. Navy, Vietnam War
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February 27th, 2009 at 10:23 am
God Bless You Fred!
Thank you for your years of service to us and our country.
You will be missed.y sympathies to your family and friends.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
It’s a wonderful memorial to the fallen fireman,but the article fails to even explain HOW he contracted the hepatitis-c fromhis work!
February 27th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Very sad of course and a great memorial.
But it would be helpful to others in the same situation/occupation to know how this disease was
contracted on-the-job so that the public and others could
take precautions.
Again. This is truly sad. My sympaties to his friends and family at this time of loss.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
In the days when Freddy started the paranoia of disease was not present. Exposures occurred because because of the lack of the use of gloves and goggles and other personal protection. Freddy was exposed during a call where he was exposed to blood from a patient with Hep C.
March 20th, 2009 at 11:44 am
too tristen and others who may wonder how? if you have never been a law enforcement officer, a firefighter, a paramedic, or a medical worker in an emergency room, you can’t comprehend the daily exposure to blood, urine, and other bodily fluids. Day, night, doesn’t matter. A small unnoticed drop of someone else’s fluids, inadvertently rubbed into your eye, or splashing on your lip is all it takes. When I started 30 years ago as a cop, AIDS had just started, was not diagnosed by medical community, and was not worldwide. Look at the world we live in now. No one wore gloves years ago, we didn’t know.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
My heart goes out to all that felt his passing, I too have hep c and although not known for sure where or how I contracted the virus, I strongly beleive that it was when I had enlisted into the u.s army in 1977 and received many shots VIA AIR GUN along with many others that stood in line for their shots, This country should be ashamed of its self for not having Ranked this virus amung the top, further more, with what this decease does to your body and the syptoms that broadly rages from a-z our government still refuses to except hep c as a decease that causes disabilities. I must admitt that although police, fire rescu, medics, nurses, come into contact with blood and bodlly fluids more than most,”They are given the “line of duty” benefit auto maticly where I myself and others like me are made to fin for themselfs, and thats blain wrong!
Its not right for a person who has this virus to be forced to go without help or support from their governments to rid this decease from their bodies. It does not matter how one contracted the hep c virus, what matters is what we do as a people to do the right thing.
“In god we trust” peace out.