A 57-year-old Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter succumbed to COVID-19 complications on New Year’s Day, the second member of the agency to die of the disease.
Capt. George Roque was a 22-year veteran of the Fire Department who was assigned to Fire Station 97 in Studio City. He leaves behind a wife and four children, according to LAFD.
“On behalf of the men and women of the LAFD, I send my deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the Roque family and his friends and colleagues throughout the Department,” Chief Ralph Terrazas said in a statement Friday.
The department provided no further information about how Roque might have contracted the coronavirus.
His passing follows the July 2020 death of firefighter and paramedic Jose Perez, who’s survived by his wife and children ages 3, 8 and 14. He was 44.
L.A. Fire Department employees began receiving their first doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine late December. They’re the first city personnel to get them.