A Lyndeborough firefighter was brought home from Goffstown yesterday in a procession of fire trucks, ambulances and police cruisers, after he was killed by a tree that fell on his truck while he was driving on Route 114 in Weare Tuesday.
Derek Lankowski, 31, was fun-loving and caring, said Lyndeborough Fire Chief Brian Smith and Rescue Chief Don Cole.
“Every picture of weddings I saw him in, he was the best man,” said Smith. “Derek would want us to come together as a family, celebrate him and move on.”
“I’ll miss him as a friend,” he added.
Lankowksi was killed Tuesday afternoon, when a gust of wind brought a tree down on his Chevy 2500 pickup truck near John Stark Regional High School. The poplar tree crushed the cab of the truck, The Concord Monitor reported. Lankowski died on-scene. No passengers were in the vehicle.
Wind gusts ripped through Merrimack County on Tuesday, reaching speeds as high as 46 mph in the early morning. Gusts reached 42 mph about the time of the crash, according to the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.
Early the next morning, members of the Lyndeborough Fire Department gathered in front of the fire station. They wrote “lost brother but not forgotten” on the board of the building, draped the board with a black and purple mourning bunting, and placed Lankowski’s firefighter helmet and jacket underneath it.
Cole said this is the first tragedy the department has experienced in his 12 years there.
“We all come together. We all grieve differently. But, we do it as a group,” he said.
Lankowski was a volunteer firefighter in Lyndeborough for eight years, according to a statement from Kevin Berkebile, the deputy fire chief. Cole called Lankowski “very compassionate.”
Lankowski leaves behind his wife, Melissa. He died on his 3 and a half-year wedding anniversary, said Cole and Smith.
Shortly after Lyndeborough Fire and Police left for Goffstown where Lankowski lay, Carl Boutwell, a retired Wilton firefighter, parked his truck near the station. Boutwell heard about the procession on the scanner.
“I came to see the ceremony,” he said. “It’s just a shame. If he left five seconds earlier or five seconds later … It’s an awful way to go.”
Tom Green of the N.H. State Firemen’s Association was on-hand to support Lyndeborough Fire. The purpose of the organization is to assist firefighters and their families when a member is injured or killed. Green, a Bedford firefighter, was moved all of Lyndeborough Fire came out for the procession, which he showed Lankowski’s death is a significant loss to them.
“We’re family,” he said, about firefighters. “[Bouncing back is] part of what we do. We still remember. We don’t forget. We remember all the great things.”
Russ Boland, the town administrator, said Lankowski’s death is a tragedy for his family and all of Lyndeborough. “We’re rallying together to support his family and the firefighters,” he said.