United States (New York) - A Tioga Center firefighter was killed in a motor vehicle accident while en route to an EMS call early Wednesday morning in Tioga Center, N.Y., authorities said. Leroy A. Kemp, 81, was traveling eastbound on Route 17C in Tioga Center on his way to the Tioga Center Fire Department in response to an EMS call when his vehicle struck the rear of a Southern Tier Recycler's truck, according to a press release from the Tioga County Sheriff's Office.

The recycling truck had been involved in a prior motor vehicle accident with a car, the release stated, and was stopped crossways in the roadway blocking both the west and eastbound lanes, the release stated. Kemp was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the sheriff's office; no other injuries were reported in the accident.

"It is with deepest sadness that the Tioga Center Fire Company No. 1 announces the line-of-duty passing of firefighter and past chief and life member Leroy A. Kemp," according to a press release from the Tioga County Bureau of Fire.

The release from the fire bureau stated that the accident occurred at around 6:08 a.m. Wednesday on Route 17C just east of the Route 282 crossover. Kemp was responding to the fire station to answer a mutual aid ambulance call in his personal vehicle, the release stated.

Tioga Central School District Superintendent Scot Taylor said schools in the district had a delayed start Wednesday morning as a result of the accident. Kemp had close ties to the district, he said, both through the fire department and relatives at the school. Route 17C, the main access point for the district's campus, was blocked off for several hours as a result of the accident, he said, and school was delayed to give emergency responders time to work at the scene of the accident.

Kemp's passing was a "great loss" and a "shock to the community," Taylor said, describing Kemp as a "guy who dedicated a great deal of his life to public service."

"Firefighter Kemp has served his fire company and community for 59 years," the release from the fire bureau stated.

The release continues:

Kemp currently served as chairman of the Tioga Fire District, captain of the fire police and company Chaplin and has served in the past as fire chief from 1985-1987 and as fire commissioner from 1987 to the present. He was an EMT with the Tioga Center Emergency Squad, which is part of the Tioga Center Fire Company, and was a retired member of the Tioga County Fire Investigation team, where he served for many years.

"Firefighter Kemp was a valued member of the Tioga Fire Company and will be deeply missed by his family, the county fire service and the community he served so faithfully."

Written by The Daily Review