Pennsylvania

Wilmington Uses City Funds to Cover Injured Firefighters' Health Care

Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki says city funding will be used to pay for the injured firefighters' hospital bills and that the city's financial problems can't be compared to the tragedy the victims and their families endured.

Wilmington officials say they'll have to pay $9 million or more to cover the health care costs for four firefighters injured in a blaze that killed three of their colleagues last year.

Mayor Mike Purzycki tells The News Journal of Wilmington that the city doesn't have worker's compensation insurance because of a decision made in the 1980s. He says city funding will be used to pay for the injured firefighters' hospital bills and that the city's financial problems can't be compared to the tragedy the victims and their families endured.

Purzycki says the city is still receiving hospital bills and it's not clear how high the costs will go. Firefighter Brad Speakman spent 41 days at a burn center in Pennsylvania and may need skin grafts and plastic surgery.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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