They were veteran firefighters. Part of the backbone of this city where history is celebrated.
But on Thursday this Iowa County community of 2,487 was in mourning after the two men with more than a combined 60 years of service with the Mineral Point Fire Department were killed in a crash on Highway 151 while responding to a rollover crash.
The dangers of the four-lane highway, with its speeding traffic, big trucks and unpredictable weather, are well known and account for the majority of the fire department’s calls. Making sense of a crash that claimed the lives of two of his firefighters, one of them a captain, proved difficult, however, for Chief Bryan Marr and the other volunteers who gathered at the station late Thursday morning to collectively grieve.