A group of 15 Kansas City firefighters took home $50,000 in Powerball winnings this week, according to a press release from the Missouri Lottery.
The firefighters, all of whom work at KCFD Station 23, pooled their money to purchase tickets in hopes of winning the $1.5 billion powerball jackpot on Jan. 13.
This is the same station of the two firefighters who were injured in a fire on Oct. 12 that killed two other firefighters.
“We lost a couple of our brothers that day,” said Dan Utt. “And virtually everyone who was in on this ticket was at that fire.”
Utt, who spoke to Missouri Lottery officials on behalf of the group, said the win came at a good time for many of them, while also serving as a pick-me-up for the group.
“Somebody’s getting married, one just got engaged,” he said. “And some have been injured.”
Although that prize went somewhere else, the firefighters were lucky enough to pick up a smaller - but still substantial - payday of their own.
The group consists of Christopher Anderson, 44; Matthew Bales, 32; Noah Beach, 31; Kim Cowan, 49; Eric Daraban, 29; Brian England, 51; Joe Galetti, 44; John German, 51; Dustin Kindall, 35; Mark Nichols, 37; Chadwick Perry, 45; Mark Ruhlman, 36; Christopher Siegel, 36; Daniel Utt, 49; and Gary Wait, 54 – all of Kansas City.
The winners said that the prize boosted morale around the station, and each member of the group has a different plan for his portion of the winnings.
EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of the story said KCFD Station 23 was also the same station of the two firefighters who were killed in a fire on Oct. 12. Station 23 is the same station of the two firefighters who were injured in the Oct. 12 fire, not of the two who were killed. We apologize for the error.
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