Fire captain and dad of 3 found dead hours after responding to Washington fire alarm
A 46-year-old Washington fire captain was found dead in his bunk hours after responding to a call, officials said.
Charles “Chad” Cate was found dead by his crew members around 7 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 12, the Clallam County Fire District 3 said in a Facebook post.
He had responded to a fire activation call at a commercial building at around 2:25 a.m., the department said.
Then he texted another captain and duty chief around 4 a.m. that all was well at a scene from an earlier house fire, the U.S. Fire Administration said.
When he got back to the station, everyone went to sleep, the fire department said. But Cate didn’t wake up in the morning.
“His passing was completely unexpected and has stunned his family, friends and brothers and sisters of the IAFF 2933 and his entire Clallam County Fire District 3 family,” the fire department wrote on Facebook.
Cate graduated from Sequim High School, where he was also a wrestling coach.
The fire department hired him in 1997 as a firefighter/paramedic, and he was promoted to captain in 2020.
He leaves behind his wife, a 2-year-old son and two adult children.
Clallam County Fire District 3 is in Sequim, which is about 65 miles northwest of Seattle.
This story was originally published January 13, 2023 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Fire captain and dad of 3 found dead hours after responding to Washington fire alarm."
