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A year later, Cincinnati remembers Daryl Gordon

Posted at 2:58 PM, Mar 30, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-30 15:00:26-04

CINCINNATI -- One year has passed since city leaders paid grateful tribute to a firefighter who died in the line of service and came to exemplify the greatest good in the city.

On March 26, 2015, Cincinnati FAO Daryl Gordon, 54, was searching for victims inside the Kings Tower Apartments complex on Dahlgrenn Street in Madisonville when he fell five flights down an open elevator shaft in the building.

City leaders and Rev. Royce Winters remembered Gordon April 1, 2015, at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral downtown. Watch the entire funeral service in the video player below.

A wreath placed Saturday at the firefighter memorial downtown marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Gordon, a 30-year veteran of the department.

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Gordon's autopsy report, released in June 2015, states Gordan died from asphyxiation and compression of chest with fractures when he was wedged between the elevator car and the shaft wall after his fall.

Speakers at the emotional two-and-a-half-hour funeral ceremony included Cincinnati Fire Chief Richard Braun, Mayor John Cranley, City Manager Harry Black, District Fire Chief Raffel Prophett, IAFF Union Local 48 President Matt Alter, and Gordon's nephew, Cincinnati Police Officer John Gordon Sr.

The Cincinnati Fire Investigators Unit report, obtained by WCPO in June, states cooking materials -- specifically food and vegetable oil -- were left unattended in an apartment and caught fire on a stove top.

A WCPO investigation found that the owner of Kings Tower Apartments is among the worst in the city for service calls and code violations, according to recent data.

Residents told WCPO the elevator door through which Gordon stepped and fell through was easy to confuse with an apartment doorway.