Martin Dirrane, a firefighter from Hartford, Conn., was struck and killed by a vehicle in Costa Rica on Saturday while he was on vacation here.
Dirrane, 50, had worked as a fireman for 16 years in Hartford where he had been promoted to lieutenant and was in charge of Ladder Company 5.
Costa Rican Red Cross spokesman Freddy Roman said only that emergency personnel transported Dirrane to the hospital in critical condition.
Dirrane’s family is en route to Costa Rica.
Friends and co-workers described Dirrane as a passionate firefighter who always looked young and fit for his age. He received multiple awards for going “above and beyond the call of duty,” and for being a devoted fireman.
“I don’t think you could find anyone who would not want to work with him,” Vincent Fusco, president of the Hartford firefighters union, told The Tico Times. “He was a great guy and very dedicated to his profession.”
Firehouse captain, Al Russo, told the Hartford Courant that Dirrane was full of energy and would “climb the highest mountains” and “take a kayak down the ‘rippin-est’ rapids.”
Dirrane was survived by his mother and his sister, Theresa and Paulina, and preceded in death by his father, Joseph, and two brothers, Joseph and Robert, the Hartford Courant reported.
