On September 26, Lieutenant Thomas O’Boyle of the Chicago Fire Department suffered a fatal heart attack at a fire in a furniture warehouse. Lieutenant O’Boyle, had just exited the structure after checking on the progress of firefighters inside when he collapsed.

Lt. Thomas O’Boyle, 55, the administrative assistant to Chicago Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco, was a 28-year veteran of the Fire Department and before that served nine years as a Chicago police officer. He joined the Chicago Fire Department in 1967 and served on trucks, engines and squads. His promotion to lieutenant was in 1987, and he was made administrative aide to Orozco in 1993.

A resident of the Mt. Greenwood neighborhood, he died Tuesday, his birthday, after collapsing at the scene of a West Side warehouse fire.

“Tom was loved by everyone he worked with,” Orozco said. “He always had a smile and a joke and was always trying to relieve the stress of the critical moments firefighters often find themselves in.”