Published April 05. 2026 10:23AM<\/p>\n
The Lehigh County Coroner\u2019s office said a fire chief and assistant fire chief in Fleetwood, Berks County, were killed in the line of duty Saturday during a missing person search.<\/p>\n
Chief Jeffory L. Buck, of Fleetwood, was pronounced dead on Saturday, at 8:07 p.m. in the Emergency Department at Lehigh Valley Hospital\u2013Cedar Crest.<\/p>\n
Fire Chief Jeff Buck and Assistant Fire Chief Robert Shick, both members of the Walnuttown Fire Company, were killed in the line of duty on Saturday, at 5:57 p.m., when the department UTV they were operating was struck by a motor vehicle during a missing person search.<\/p>\n
Chief Buck was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital\u2013Cedar Crest, where he later died as a result of his injuries. Assistant Chief Shick was transported to Reading Hospital, where he also succumbed to his injuries.<\/p>\n
Autopsies will be completed Monday at the Lehigh County Coroner\u2019s Office & Forensic Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of myself and the entire Lehigh County Coroner\u2019s Office & Forensic Center, we extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the families of Chief Jeff Buck and Assistant Chief Robert Shick, as well as to the members of the Walnuttown Fire Company and the entire firefighting community, said Coroner Daniel A. Buglio. \u201cWe mourn alongside them during this profound loss and honor the dedication, courage, and selfless service these two fallen heroes gave in the line of duty. Their commitment to protecting and serving others will never be forgotten, and their sacrifice will be forever remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published April 05. 2026 10:23AM The Lehigh County Coroner\u2019s office said a fire chief and assistant fire chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-157831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}