By EMS1 Staff
CHICAGO — An autopsy has found that a Chicago Fire Department paramedic who was found dead in a house fire died by suicide.
Chicago Sun Times reported that Lt. Robert Spoon, 28, died of a gunshot wound to the head, with thermal burns as a contributing factor. His death was ruled as a suicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Witness Mike Strubin said he saw the fire from across the street. “We were in the backyard on our deck, and we see the smoke in the sky, just heavily dark smoke,” he said.
Strubin called the fire department and went with a group of construction workers to the scene. The workers broke down the door.
Strubin said black smoke was billowing through the windows. “Stuff was falling,” he said. “You could feel the heat standing right across the street.”
Spoon had been a paramedic with the Chicago Fire Department for two-and-a-half years and a Hometown Fire Protection District firefighter for 10 years.