LEWISTON — The body of Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco arrived Monday afternoon at a local funeral home. He died Sunday while attending the funeral of Capt. Joel Barnes of the Berwick Fire Department in Portland, according to Oxford fire officials.
Sacco was hired as Oxford’s fire chief in June 2017. Before that, he had served for 12 years as chief of the New Gloucester Fire Department. He had worked with fire and EMS departments since the mid-1970s.
Capt. John Brennan, a spokesman for the Portland Fire Department, said that around 10 a.m. — one hour before the memorial service for Barnes was scheduled to begin — a Portland firetruck and ambulance responded to the area of the Holiday Inn by the Bay on Spring Street for a medical call. A person there was then transported by ambulance to Maine Medical Center, Brennan said.
The Holiday Inn by the Bay is located a few hundred feet away from the Cross Insurance Arena, where the service for Barnes was held.
“The medical call did not happen during the memorial service. It happened outside,” Brennan said. “No one had to be taken out of the funeral.”
This story will be updated.
Portland Press Herald reporters Dennis Hoey and J. Craig Anderson contributed to this report.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
