Langford Fire Rescue is reeling this week after receiving word one of their counterparts in Afghanistan has died in the line of duty.
While working to get Afghan Fire Chief Ghulam Hazrat admitted to the Kandahar airfield hospital, the local department learned another firefighter that visited and trained in Langford back in 2006 and 2008, Atiqullah Jamshedi Mohammadullah, died after battling a fire connected to a terrorist attack earlier this month.
“Atiqullah has been our closest contact and a phenomenal ambassador for the fire service. He inspired the growth of our Langford program,” said Assistant Chief Geoff Spriggs. “We think about our friends there and hope they are all okay – sadly, today this is not the case.”
More than 30 people were killed and at least another 50 were wounded earlier this month when ISIS gunmen dressed as doctors attacked a military hospital in Kabul. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, which began with a suicide bombing.
“News is slow to filter from there so it doesn’t surprise me that it has taken this long to get word,” Spriggs said, adding the interpreter the department uses to communicate with Hazrat was at that same hospital with his son during the attack.
Mohammadullah was one of the firefighters battling the blaze at the hospital. It is believed he inhaled toxic fumes and smoke particles, resulting in pulmonary problems and his death several days later.
Langford Fire Chief Bob Beckett noted he will be honoured at the local department’s annual banquet later this year.
“As a father and parent who watched Atiq interact with my own children when he stayed at our home, made it all the more difficult knowing he has left behind a wife and 5 young children. Atiq and the Afghan experience impacted my wife and I so profoundly that in Atiq’s honour we gave our youngest daughter an Afghan middle name,” Beckett said.
katie@goldstreamgazette.com
