Chicago firefighter Steven Decker dies during training exercise in West Rogers Park

A Chicago firefighter died on Thursday afternoon during a training exercise in the West Rogers Park neighborhood.

Fire Department officials said it happened shortly after 3 p.m. in the 6600 block of North Kedzie Avenue.

Sources said the firefighter collapsed during a hose test, and his fellow firefighters began administering CPR before taking him to St. Francis Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 4 p.m.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office identified him as 61-year-old Steven Decker. Fire Department officials said he was a 30-year veteran of the department. 

Decker was a fire engineer with Engine 71 in West Rogers Park. Fire engineers are typically responsible for maintaining fire engines and other equipment, driving fire engines, and connecting hoses to hydrants and other water sources, in addition to standard firefighter duties.  

An ambulance escorted by other CFD vehicles and police squad cars carried Decker's body from Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, where fellow firefighters saluted him before his body was taken inside on Thursday evening.

Decker's death comes less than two months after Chicago firefighter Michael Altman was killed in an apartment fire in Rogers Park. A man has been charged with arson and murder in Altman's death.