SISSONVILLE, W.Va. — The Kanawha County volunteer firefighter who collapsed and died at a fire scene Monday afternoon in has been identified as 62-year-old John Appleton.
Crews were called to a fire on Happy Hollow Road at about 2 p.m. They arrived on the scene to find the double-wide mobile home full of flames.
Kanawha County Fire Coordinator C.W. Sigman said Appleton—working with the Malden Volunteer Fire Department—reported not feeling well shortly after arriving on the scene.
Sigman said Appleton was instructed by paramedics to try and cool down and, a short time later, went into cardiac arrest.
“Paramedics from Kanawha County ambulance jumped right on it and started rendering aid immediately and they brought him to the Charleston General Hospital and they really did all they could do but he did not survive,” said Sigman.
Appleton had been with the department for seven years and also served as a pastor at the Kanawha Salines Presbyterian Church in Malden.
“He was one of those dedicated guys who would come out at all hours day and night doing all he could and always looking after everybody and good guys,” Sigman said. “We are going to miss this guy.”
The temperatures were in the upper 80s in Kanawha County Monday afternoon with high humidity.