Firefighter dies in fall while battling 3-alarm fire in Dorchester

The Boston Fire Department is mourning the loss of a veteran firefighter killed in the line of duty.

Robert J. Kilduff Jr. died while battling a house fire in Dorchester Saturday night. He fell from a third-floor window during the blaze.

Around 8:15 p.m., firefighters responded to the scene at 18 Treadway Road. The fire quickly escalated to three alarms, spreading to all three floors before firefighters knocked down the bulk of it about 20 minutes later.

The department said the firefighters were able to keep it from spreading to neighboring houses.

Around 8:50 p.m., a mayday was declared after Kilduff, of Rescue Company 2, fell from the third-floor. Boston paramedics and EMTs transported him to Boston Medical Center.

Kilduff had been a firefighter for 24 years and was a third-generation firefighter.

"Boston will always honor his life, his dedication, and his service with the deepest gratitude and respect," Boston Mayor Michelle Wu told reporters Saturday, adding, "and we are so sorry to the family."

Fire Commissioner Rodney Marshall said the department would work to posthumously grant Kilduff "the highest honors" firefighters can receive.

"Everyday we put on this uniform, we know in the back of our minds that something like this is a possibility, but to actually have it happen to someone you work with and actually know is something you can't put into words," Marshall said.

Kilduff is the first Boston firefigher to die in the line of duty since 2014.

Kilduff’s colleagues at Roxbury’s Rescue 2 fire house remembered him as a “Jake’s Jake” — a term of high praise for firefighters — whose reputation stretched far beyond the department.

Rescue 2’s commander Lt. Greg Kelly called Kilduff “the quintessential rescue man,” saying there was hardly a firefighter in Division 2 “that can say that they can’t remember a time where Bobby Kilduff didn’t help them in a fire.” He described Kilduff as one of the department’s most skilled firefighters, saying, “BK was one of the most tactically and technically proficient firefighters on this job.”

Said Capt. Sean Linnell said in a press conference on Sunday. “I always relied on him. He was my go-to guy.”

Firefighters recounted how, in the days before his death, Kilduff had helped rescue a girl threatening to jump from a building and assisted in saving a homeless man trapped in a confined space at the Fields Corner MBTA station.

“He was the heart of this firehouse,” Kelly said. “He is irreplaceable.”

Capt. Kevin Preston of Engine 42 said Kilduff balanced the pressures of firefighting with fatherhood in a way younger firefighters admired.

“He loved his kids so much,” Preston said. “He was that example that all of us as firefighters and fathers and parents, we strive to be.”

" Our heart goes out to the Kilduff family," said Sam Dillon, president of the Boston Firefighters, IAFF Local 718 union, "and we ask the entire city to stand with us and stand with the Kilduffs in memory of Bobby, who laid down his life for this city and for his brother and sister firefighters."

A funeral for Kilduff will be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross Monday, June 1 at 10 a.m.

With reporting from The Dorchester Reporter