New Knoxville, OH -- Two volunteer firefighters died on October 1, when the roof of the concrete silo below them exploded as they were fighting a fire, hurling the men 75 feet to the ground.
Seven more firefighters and two owners of the company were injured in the blast.
Ken Jutte, 44, and John Garman, 42, had come four miles from nearby New Bremen to help firefighters from New Knoxville and other departments fight the sawdust fire at Hoge Lumber. They died soon after the explosion.
They were the first volunteers of the New Bremen fire department to die since 1896.
Mr. Jutte and Mr. Garman died when the roof of a concrete silo at Hoge Lumber, about 90 miles southwest of Toledo in Auglaize County, exploded below them as they were fighting a fire in a silo full of sawdust. The explosion sent the men 75 feet to the ground. The cause of the fire and explosion remain under investigation by the state fire marshal's office.
Family members of the two fallen firefighters described the men as community-minded and involved.
"He was willing to help anyone or anything," Betty Jutte said of her son, who was one of seven siblings. "Just plain helping people, that was his big thing."
Mrs. Jutte said her son enjoyed all his community activities, but especially fire fighting. In his nearly two decades of volunteering, Mrs. Jutte said her son had been hospitalized once for smoke inhalation. Mr. Jutte, who was a manager of parts distribution for Crown Equipment, was married and had three children.
Mr. Garman was a bachelor who graduated from New Bremen High School before going into machine work, said his father, Charles Garman. The younger Mr. Garman had worked for the last several years for Crown, a lift-truck manufacturer in New Bremen, as a machine operator.
But John's passion always was the fire department.
"That was his second life," said Mr. Garman, who spent 25 years with the fire department. "He would come over and see me and talk about it."
Contributions to the memorial funds in the name of the firefighters can be made to:
The New Bremen / German Township Fire Foundation Fund
214 N. Washington St.
New Bremen, Ohio 45869
Please add the name of the firefighter's family to the contribution.
