Colleagues Mourn Orange Firefighter Killed in Crash

Orange firefighters are mourning the loss of a popular colleague who died last week in a car accident.

Capt. Robert Frick died on his day off late Friday when the car he was driving veered off El Toro Road and hit a tree near his home in Lake Forest. Frick, 57, was declared dead at the scene.

“It was pretty devastating,” said Frank Frasz, a chief at the Orange Fire Department, where Frick had worked for 33 years. “Everybody was very distraught. It’s going to be quite a loss for us. He was a real nice guy.”

A native of Detroit, Frick first went to work for the department as a fireman in 1967. Four years later he was promoted to engineer and less than three years after that was named a captain. For the past 20 years, he worked out of the station at Main Street and Maple Avenue.

During his long career, Frick was honored with an award of valor and many letters of commendation for his heroic rescues, training expertise and community service. In 1981 he and his crew rescued a worker who had entered an underground vault and was being asphyxiated. Working to free the unconscious victim even as his own air-supply warning bell clanged, Frick attached a rescue belt that allowed the victim to be pulled to the surface.

Three years later he oversaw the rescue of a woman who had been in an automobile accident and was in danger of being crushed by the weight of her own car.

And in 1997 Frick spent 10 days assisting in the rescue of victims of heavy flooding in Sacramento.

“He will be missed,” Frasz said. “It will be a long time before we can replace his knowledge and skill level.”

Off duty, Frick was an avid outdoor sportsman who loved riding motorcycles, owned a “hot rod” and enjoyed power boating.

A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday at the Salvation Army, 10200 Pioneer Road, in Tustin, followed by a reception at Orange Fire Station 7, 8501 Fort Road.

Frick is survived by two sons: Donald C. Frick of Lake Forest and Robert J. Frick of Temecula, a firefighter for the Orange County Fire Authority.