Linus Fobare and Tommy Fina
with their speed skating medals and trophies.
Courtesy of Phil Griffin
Born: 1933
Died: June 26, 1954
Tom Fina was a speed skater.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 28, 1954
How Tom Fina Was Killed
Killed In Line Of Duty
FIREMAN FAILS TO HEAR YELLS
Electric Wire Kills Volunteer Instantly
Thomas J. Fina, 21 years old, a member of the Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department, was killed instantly shortly after midnight Saturday when he reached for a broken, street light electric wire which had been felled near the Burton-Pontiac Garage on Sumner Place.
An alarm had been turned into the fire department at 12:10 a.m. for a fire started in rubbish near the garage. Fina who was near the firehouse at the time, went there immediately and, with William Disco, driver of the truck, rode to the scene.
“Tom jumped off the truck,” Disco told The Enterprise today, “and put out the fire with chemicals. Then he turned and saw Floyd Burton holding a sputtering power wire away from the side of the building with the bristles of a broom.
Part of the broken broom handle — no more than 14 inches long was on the ground. Tom reached for it and started for the wire. I hollered at him to stay away — we've all been trained to handle broken wires the right way. But he didn't hear me.
“I was never so scared in all my life. I kept on hollering but Tom kept on twisting the wire on the broom. Then it slipped and he reached for it with his other hand.
“The wire fell across his hands and slipped to his ankle. He hadn't had time to put on rubber boots and he was standing in water.
“Just as I reached him he said ‘Oh!' and fell to the ground.
“He brushed against me as he dropped and I guess I was lucky I had on my rubber boots and coat. Even so, I felt as if a handful of sewing needles had been thrown at me. There's a brown mark on my arm where Tom touched me.
“It all happened so fast it didn't seem possible.”
This was the first death of a volunteer in the line of duty since the Fire Department was organized 63 years ago.
Raleigh Finch, of the Paul Smith's Electric Co., estimated that the broken wire carried a 3,800 voltage. The average voltage of household electric appliances, which can cause electrocution if improperly handled, is 110.
Dr. Richard P. Bellaire, Franklin County Coroner, said death was due to electrocution and that Fina died before he hit the ground. Nothing could have saved him, Dr. Bellaire said.
Leon Harvey, 19, an employee of the New York State Conservation Department, who lives on Sumner Place and was watching the fire, realized the danger Fina was in and started towards him. Volunteer firemen Jim Kilroy and Fletcher Mace held Harvey back.
“They probably saved his life,” Fire Chief Carl Smith said today.
The fire truck is equipped with spurs, mittens and a safety belt such as is used by linesmen of Paul Smith's Electric Co. and all volunteers have been trained to use them.
“The firemen had a fight on their hands,” Chief Smith reported” to prevent possible deaths from eager spectators who tried to crowd into the narrow section from Dorsey st. to Olive where other wires were down.”
Dick Yorkey, another volunteer, using the proper equipment, pulled the wire away with a long wooden pike until workers from Paul Smith's arrived to shut off the current.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 28, 1954
Members of the Saranac Fire Department will hold special services for Fina at 7:30 o'clock tonight from the A. Fortune & Co. Funeral Chapel. Funeral services will be conducted at 10 a.m. tomorrow from the Chapel, with Rev. Ernest Mounsey officiating.
Volunteer firemen will serve as pall bearers. Members of the National Guard, of which Fina had been a member, Saranac Lake volunteer firemen and firemen from Massena and Lake Placid with the National Guard as an honorary guard during burial in Pine Ridge Cemetery. A National Guard squad will fire a salute.
Fina, who was born in Saranac and studied in the schools here, was a well-known speed skater. In 1951 he won the National Championships for Intermediate Boys at St. Paul, Minn.
He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Pascal A. Fina, of 61 River st.; a sister, Patricia, of Syracuse, and two brothers, Dannie and Ronnie, of Saranac Lake. There are two half sisters, Margaret Orlardo, of Great Neck, L. I., and Mrs. Barbara LaFonti, of Bayonne, N.J.
Also, his grandmothers, Mrs. Mabel Guilford, of Massena, and Mrs. Vinzenza (?) of Conotia [sic: probably Kenosha], Wis. There are three half brothers,…
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 29, 1954
MILITARY RITES FOR THOS. FINA
Thomas J. Fina, 21 years old, as buried in Pine Ridge Cemetery this morning with military honors. More than 100 people stood about the grave as a salute to the dead was fired by a squad of the Saranac Lake National Guard, of which he was a member.
The young man, a member of the Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department, was electrocuted by a fallen electric wire which he tried to move after helping extinguish a fire near the Burton-Pontiac Garage on Sumner Place early Sunday morning.
David Merkel sounded taps over the flag-draped coffin before interment.
Members of the Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department Racing Team who served as pall bearers were Kenneth Shaw, Richard Yorkey, Paul St. Marie, Joseph Carroll, James Kilroy and Richard Berman.
Including five firemen from Massena there were 37 additional firemen present, serving as honorary pall bearers.
The firing squad of the National Guard was composed of M/Sgt. S. M. Sayles; S/FC. G.J, Schaefer; Sgt. J.H. Bombard, Sgt. R.E. Martell; Sgt. J.E. Lamy; Sgt. J. F. Lewis; Sgt. F.J. Ransom; S/FC. H.J. Riley and Cpl. A.H. Auban. Fifty Guard members, including the firing squad, also were honorary pall bearers.
Saranac Lake Chief of Police William Wallace commented today that "the death of Tom Fina in the line of duty should make the people of this community aware of the great sacrifices made by our Fire Department so that the rest of us can live in saftey."
