BY LIVI STANFORD
CITIZENS NEWS
WATERBURY – Joe Bogdanski, who served as a firefighter in the city for 26 years, died Wednesday morning at Bristol Hospital after becoming ill at home, Lt. Jonathan Schultz, president of the IAFF Local 1339, confirmed today. Bogdanski was 53.
No other details surrounding his death were available this morning. The cause of his death was not available.
In 2022, Bogdanski had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
He had no family history. No symptoms.
A health screening offered by the Waterbury Fire Fighters Association IAFF Local 1339 led him to the diagnosis.
Sam Kinkade, a member of the executive board of the Waterbury Fire Fighters Association Local IAFF 1339, had said the local union learned about the screenings at a Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut convention in November 2022.
Bogdanski joined the ranks of firefighters facing a different kind of alarm – about the dangers of PFAS, synthetic chemicals used in various products, including firefighting gear, that have been linked to increased rates of cancer.
Schultz, who had worked with Bogdanski since 1998, said he “was the rock of the crew. He was the steady guy,” he said. “He was not the guy flying off the handle. He was involved in everything.”
The fire service was a calling for Bogdanski. He began his career at age 20. He found the profession while serving in the military, where he did some firefighting.
“There is always a purpose, whether delivering a baby or extricating someone out of a vehicle,” he told the Republican American in January.
“You want to make a difference, and you go to work every day knowing what you are going to deal with in the fire service is ultimately different from your last shift.”
