Firefighting recruit dies at Baylor

Man couldn’t finish skills test 3 weeks ago

December 3, 1987

By Lori Stahl

Staff Writer

A Dallas Fire Department recruit died early Thursday, three weeks after he was rushed to Baylor University Medical Center when he was unable to complete a strenuous training exercise, officials said.

Adrian Richmond Cal, 26, had been in intensive care since he was taken by ambulance to the hospital Nov. 10. Fire Department officials said the recruit, who had finished five months of training, was unable to complete a "routine skills test" at the department’s training academy on Dolphin Road.

Fire Department spokeswoman J. J. Howe said Cal had run the "drill tower" – a makeshift six-story structure designed to resemble a high-rise—one time, but could not continue the exercise with his class after a short break.

"He had come down and they were ready to go up again and he said, "I can’t do it" and that’s when they realized it wasn’t just fatigue or whatever," Ms. Howe said.

Cal did not lose consciousness or fall down, but officials at the academy immediately rushed him to the hospital by ambulance, she said.

"H had done this routine for probably every day of his five months of training," Ms. Howe said.

Fire officials said they did not know what caused Cal’s death.

The recruit’s physician could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Cal, who was one week away from graduating from the academy when he was hospitalized, began training May 13.

Officials with the Fire Department said Cal, an emergency operations employee, died at 2:22 a.m.