ZELLER, Sr., MARK G.

 Honoring & Remembering Maryland Fallen Heroes

 Beth Steel/Sparrows Point FD ~ Baltimore County ~ Maryland

March 2, 1979

Over the years, Mark Zeller’s career choices were eclectic & entrepreneurial as he & his wife raised 6 children in Baltimore County.

During WWII he worked as a production manager for Glenn L. Martin building B26 Bombers, later he would become the owner/operator/mechanic of a Sinclair gas station &  then the owner operator of Zeller’s full-service grocery store.

 In 1960, he went to work for Bethlehem Steel Sparrows Point in the Pattern Shop & that is where he remained, until 1974, when, at the age of 58 yrs, he became a firefighter for the Bethlehem Steel Sparrows Point Fire Department.

Early on the morning of March 2, 1979, the Beth Steel Fire Department’s Cardox unit responded to an alarm at one of the mills. The huge Sparrows Point complex was crisscrossed with railroad lines, used by company trains loaded with steel, ore, & other loads, that cross over plant roads in hundreds of spots. The Cardox unit, with EVO Paige driving & Firefighter Zeller riding the right front, was responding north bound, as a company train was traveling westbound. Neither EVO Paige, nor the driver of the train, saw each other due to a building blocking their view.

Suddenly, both drivers slammed on their brakes, the Cardox unit skidding some 50 feet before it crossed the track & was struck by the train , crushing the passenger side of the Cardox unit.

Firefighter Zeller was critically injured & trapped inside the cab for over an hour. As fellow firefighters cut away the crushed metal to rescue their colleague, the plant medical staff administered oxygen & IV fluids to him.

Once extricated, Firefighter Zeller was transported to the hospital where, sadly, he died from his injuries an hour after arrival.

Firefighter Mark Gerard Zeller, Sr. was 64 years old and had served in the fire department for 6 years.