Officials provide update after Montgomery County firefighter dies in line of duty

A Montgomery County firefighter died while responding to a call in Laurel early Saturday evening.

The firefighter has been identified as Christopher J. Higgans. He was a career firefighter, a 22-year-veteran and he was 46 years old.

It's still not clear exactly what happened at the scene of this fire on Bradford Drive in Laurel.

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Montgomery County Fire Chief Corey Smedley said this firefighter had an emergency during the fire but declined to elaborate further on what that was.

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"It would be premature for us to go into any details at this time. It has let us allow the investigative process to take place and when we have that information and I can confidently say what has occurred, and the family is okay with that, we’ll do that," Smedley said. 

The fallen firefighter’s body was accompanied by a procession from the hospital to the Medical Examiner’s office. There, an autopsy was done.

FOX 5 was told that multiple entities will be involved in this investigation as they work to figure out what happened. County Executive Mark Elrich and Council president Kate Stewart were there.

Chief Smedley said this is a sad time for the department and the work starts to help support those within the department while the work to continue being there for the residents of Montgomery County doesn’t stop.

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