Robert Sebeck, a Baltimore City firefighter who jumped into the harbor to rescue people aboard a capsized water taxi in 2004, died after falling from a roof July 12 while repairing a chimney at his Abingdon home. He was 49.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Belair-Edison, he was a 1979 graduate of Archbishop Curley High School. He joined the Baltimore City Fire Department and was stationed at Oldtown in downtown Baltimore before serving as an emergency boat operator at the city's fire and rescue maritime station at Fort McHenry.
When the water taxi capsized during a squall in 2004, he was the first rescuer in the water. He and his partner were on the fireboat that reached the overturned craft, the Lady D. Their target was a female passenger who was floating face down in the water nearby.
A Baltimore Sun account said he wore a life vest and jumped in. "He hoisted the unconscious woman up by the back of her pants and attempted to climb back on the fireboat," the 2004 article said. "But the boat's ladder snapped, sending him and the victim back into the water. A police boat arrived and guided the woman to a nearby naval vessel, where reservists began CPR.
"A shivering Sebeck finally made it aboard his boat and promptly collapsed. But he quickly regained his strength when a naval reservist shouted that they had 'a little girl in full [cardiac] arrest,' Sebeck said. It was 8-year-old Sarah Bentrem. He and his partner raced her to shore." The child survived the accident.
He later said he was haunted by the sight of her curly hair blowing in the wind.
"That image will never leave me," he said. "It'll never be over. You don't see stuff like that and wake up in the morning and everything's hunky-dory."
Later that year, Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. awarded him his department's Heroic Service Award.
Mr. Sebeck also met with surviving family members who returned to Baltimore on the anniversary of the Lady D's capsizing.
He enjoyed fishing and crabbing.
A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Shrine of the Little Flower Roman Catholic Church, Belair Road and Brendan Avenue.
Survivors include his wife of 19 years, the former Mary Ann Cinquegrani; three sons, Daniel Sebeck of Essex, Robert Sebeck Jr. of Essex and James Sebeck of Abingdon; a daughter, Sara Sebeck of Abingdon; a stepdaughter, Melissa Leneve of Oklahoma; his father, James Sebeck of Rosedale; two brothers, Frank Sebeck of Parkville and James Sebeck of Dundalk; a sister, Jodie Schultz of Bel Air; and three grandchildren.