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On-Duty Firefighter At Crash Struck Dead By Teen Driver In Pennsylvania

A 66-year-old firefighter was struck dead by a car driven by a teenager while on duty in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Dec. 6, authorities say.

Kurt Keilhofer.

Kurt Keilhofer.

Photo Credit: Linkedin/Kurt Keilhofer; Facebook/Mapleton fire department

Kurt Keilhofer was on the scene of a separate crash as a first responder with the Mapleton Fire Department when he was hit by the 19-year-old's vehicle in the area of Hares Valley Road and Dell Lane in Union Township, around 7:30 a.m., according to Pennsylvania state police.

While driving through the area of the crash scene the unnamed teen lost control of their vehicle and struck Keilhofer, the police explain in the release. 

Keilhofer was taken to Penn Highlands Huntingdon where he was later pronounced dead, authorities say. 

An investigation into the crash is ongoing. 

Keilhofer "was a wonderful guy to work beside, one that you wished there was more people like him in this world," as the fire department wrote on Facebook announcing his passing. 

He was also made the code enforcer on staff for the swimming pool at Mapleton Borough in June 2021, according to Huntingdon Daily News

Before joining the fire department he was a trucker or more accurately a van operator with Schroeder Moving Systems based in Appleton, Wisconsin, according to his social media. He moved full-time to Mapleton in 2020 when he retired. His wife, Kathy (Perkins) Keilhofer lives in the area and the pair used to travel together making trips between Nevada and Texas, according to an Overdrive article featuring the couple. 

The pair was highlighted for a donation drive of school supplies that they helped organize and haul going from Pennsylvania to Post, Texas where a school had burned down in 2015, the outlet reports.

Keilhofer had previously worked as a manager at Knouse Foods in Chambersburg, Ortanna, Peach Glen, PA and Paw Paw, MI in 1982-87 and in a similar role at the National Fruit Product Co., Inc. in Winchester, VA from 1987-92, according to his Linkedin. 

He was a class of 1978 graduate from Penn State University with a BS in Agricultural Mechanization, and 1974 graduated from Mount Lebanon High School, according to his social media. 

He is survived by his wife Kathy; ex-wife Taffiea Marshall; the daughter he had with Marshall, Constance Keilhofer of West Virginia; and three grandsons, Colton Stotler, Mason White, and Hayden White of his belated daughter Fresca Keilhofer White and his former son-in-law Jeremy White of West Virginia, according to White's obituary. 

Constance has already been sharing about her loss on social media.

Daily Voice has reached out to the family to express our condolences and they say their "hearts hurt too more right now" to talk more about this loss.

Funeral and memorial service details have yet to be released. 

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