I still hear the echo of Juan’s laugh in the locker room; the quiet way he checked his gear twice and then once more. Juan Bucio was a Chicago Fire Department diver who gave everything to the job and to people he didn’t even know; he died while searching for a missing boater in the Chicago River in 2018, and that loss still sits heavy with us.
I met Juan when he first joined the department. He came to the CFD after serving his city in other ways, and he became a diver in 2007—a role he took on with the kind of discipline and calm that made the rest of us better. He was the guy who trained harder than anyone else, who volunteered for the cold-water drills, who never wanted the spotlight but always took the lead when it mattered. He was 46 when he died, and the way the city and our crew honored him at his funeral showed how many lives he’d touched.
The day we lost him is a day I replay in my head. We were called to the river for a missing boater, and Juan suited up without hesitation. He was one of our best—fast, methodical, and fearless—but even the best can be taken by the river’s dark, unpredictable pull. When the call came that he hadn’t surfaced, the station went quiet in a way I’d never felt before. Families gathered, flags were lowered, and we tried to hold each other up while we remembered the man who had always been the steady hand in the chaos.
At his funeral, people spoke about Juan’s humility: a lifeguard as a teen, a police officer, then a firefighter who never stopped serving. He didn’t seek praise; he sought to make sure others had a chance to live. That’s the part I want people to remember—not just the tragedy, but the courage that led him into the water for a stranger. The bell rang, the engine rolled, and we promised to carry his example forward.
Some nights I still wake thinking I’ll see him at the rig, joking about coffee. Instead, I put on my gear and check my lines a little more carefully, because Juan taught me that preparation matters, and that bravery is a habit, not a headline. He fell in the river, but he never gave up trying to save someone else—and that is the way I choose to remember him
