Shown in 2005, Edward Montaรฑo, second from left, surrounded by fellow retired Tucson firefighters who helped restore a 1954 Mack fire truck into a hearse for departed firefighters.

Edward Montaรฑo, a retired Tucson Fire Department captain who battled the historic Pioneer Hotel fire in 1970 โ€” causing him to focus his career on fire prevention โ€” died March 29 of complications from several falls. He was 88.

Montaรฑo died at home under hospice care, said Margaret Montaรฑo, Edโ€™s wife of 27 years.

โ€œWe were best friends for many, many years before we married,โ€ said Margaret. โ€œI will always remember his kindness, fairness, strength and loyalty. He took care of his six siblings, his mother and grandmother until they passed,โ€ said his wife.

During the Pioneer Hotel fire, Margaret recalled her husband telling her that he was told at one point to go to an area โ€œwhere burn victims and cadaversโ€ were being brought out of the hotel and he was to direct where the victims would be taken by ambulances to the hospitals, and where the dead bodies were taken to be picked up.

Montaรฑo was sent into the hotel after the blaze was put out and he found out there was no sprinkler system, and the stairwells had no fire doors, which was the reason the fire spread so quickly. โ€œThat was when he decided prevention was more important than the aftermath of a tragedy,โ€ recalled Margaret Montaรฑo.

The fire broke out on the fourth floor of the 11-story building just before midnight on Dec. 19, 1970, and flames raced up the floors trapping many guests in their rooms. Exits were locked to prevent thefts, and firetruck ladders were too short to reach the higher floors, causing children and adults to jump from windows to their deaths to escape the searing heat, according to a 2013 Arizona Daily Star news article. Others burned to death in their rooms, and most died of carbon-monoxide poisoning while waiting to be rescued. In total, 29 died, including one victim who died months later in a hospital, states the article.

A firefighter on a fully extended ladder sprays water on the Pioneer Hotel during the blaze in 1970. Rescuers couldn't reach those trapped on the upper floors.

โ€œThe Pioneer Hotel fire was one of the most tragic fires in Tucson history,โ€ said former TFD firefighter Mike McKendrick, who is chairman of the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation. โ€œThat fire led Ed into a career that made changes such as sprinklers in buildings and safe stairwells. He worked to enforce the fire codes and is known for his work in the fire prevention division,โ€ said McKendrick.

Margaret Montaรฑo said the burn victims and the deaths stayed in her husbandโ€™s mind forever. โ€œThat is why he believed fire prevention was so important. He could not believe there were no fire sprinklers in high rises in Tucson,โ€ said Margaret Montaรฑo of her husband who climbed the ranks becoming inspector in 1974 and captain in 1980. He had more than a dozen fire inspectors under him. He retired in 1986.

Montaรฑo joined the Tucson Retired Firefighters Association and he was among a core of membersโ€™ efforts to restore a 1954 Mack pumper fire truck found in a salvage yard on the cityโ€™s south side in the mid-1980s. It originally was a Long Beach California Fire Department truck that was retired and brought to Tucson in 1984 by a previous owner and parked at the salvage yard. The firefighters association purchased the truck through a donation by a local businessman in 2005, and members went to work raising funds and manpower to restore the historic truck into a โ€œLast Alarmโ€ hearse for public safety personnel in Arizona. It took the retired firefighters 10 years to completely restore the truck.

McKendrick said Montaรฑo was a past president and founding board member of the Last Alarm Foundation and will be carried on the Last Alarm fire truck for his funeral services. The truck will be driven by Montaรฑoโ€™s nephew, Station 8 firefighter Billy Eyrich Jr.

Tucson Fire inspector Ed Montaรฑo

Montaรฑo was born March 15, 1934 at the downtown Storkโ€™s Nest, a maternity home that provided a safe option for labor and delivery. It operated from the 1920s through the 1940s. He graduated from Tucson High School in the early 1950s, and after graduation he joined the Navy serving on the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga. Once he was honorably discharged in 1959, Montaรฑo joined the Tucson Fire Department.

In addition to his wife, Montaรฑo is survived by a stepson and stepdaughter, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Services will be Thursday, April 21, at Santa Cruz Catholic Church, 1220 S. Sixth Ave., starting with a 10 a.m. viewing followed by a 10:30 a.m. funeral Mass. Burial will follow at Holy Hope Cemetery at 3555 N. Oracle Road.

Donations can be made in memory of Montaรฑo to The Last Alarm Foundation, P.O. Box 18408, Tucson, AZ 85731.


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Contact reporter Carmen Duarte at cduarte@tucson.com or on Twitter: @cduartestar