Firefighters from around the state are expected to gather this weekend for the funeral of a southern Minnesota firefighter who died in the line of duty hours after answering two emergency calls last week. Timothy Royce, 58, responded with fellow Mapleton firefighters to a traffic crash and then a medical call Thursday. He died early the next morning from an apparent heart attack, Fire Chief Ben Froehlich for the 22-member volunteer department said Wednesday.
"Everything he was involved in, he was the go-to guy," Froehlich said, "and not just the Fire Department but work and church." The chief said Royce joined the department in 2001, though he knew him before then. "He was just in my wedding this past October."