A Baltimore firefighter died Friday during a training exercise, the second city firefighter fatally injured on the job this week.

Charles Mudra, an emergency vehicle driver for the department, suffered a medical emergency as he was training at an East Baltimore facility on Pulaski Highway. Mudra, who served on the crew of the city’s Truck 20, which is stationed in Greektown, was transported to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Mudra was a 17-year veteran of the department.

Mayor Brandon M. Scott said in a statement that the city was “devastated by the unexpected loss of another BCFD hero.”

“Our city will forever honor the selflessness, bravery and generosity he offered to our residents and his fellow members of the department,” Scott said.

Baltimore was already mourning Lt. Mark Dranbauer, a 23-year veteran of the department who suffered a medical emergency while battling a downtown fire on Monday. The department announced Thursday that Dranbauer was not expected to recover and said he was being removed from life support.

“Lt. Dranbauer has dedicated more than two decades of his life to serving the people of Baltimore with courage, honor, and unwavering commitment,” a statement from the fire department said Thursday. “His leadership, compassion, and dedication to his fellow firefighters and the community will never be forgotten.”

The city’s fire department has been battered by fatalities in recent years in spite of implementing new measures to protect the safety of its members in the wake of a historically deadly fire. Three members of the department, Lt. Kelsey Sadler, Lt. Paul Butrim and EMT/firefighter Kenny Lacayo, were killed in 2022 when a Stricker Street home they entered to battle a blaze collapsed onto them.

The incident prompted a multi-agency investigation that faulted the city fire department for failing to abide by recommendations made in past reports about close calls and line-of-duty deaths. The scathing report issued by the investigators prompted the resignation of then-Fire Chief Niles Ford and led to the introduction of new rules surrounding the entry of vacant buildings and the restart of a program to post warning placards on unstable structures.

A legal battle between the families of the firefighters and the city is ongoing.

During a City Council hearing this month, fire department leaders said mayday calls, those issued when a firefighter is trapped or injured, have dropped sharply since the department began marking vacant buildings. Data presented at the meeting showed no mayday calls issued in 2024 and none in the first quarter of 2025.

Still, the department has suffered several fatalities since. In 2023, Lt. Dillon Rinaldo and Rodney Pitts III were killed while fighting a fire that spread rapidly through three rowhomes in Northwest Baltimore. The homes were not vacant or unstable, but flames quickly intensified and overwhelmed the firefighters inside, officials said at the time.

Mudra, the firefighter who died Friday, made headlines in 2018 when he pleaded guilty to assaulting a bicycling advocate, also a city employee, at a neighborhood meeting. Neither was attending the meeting in a professional capacity, but the incident prompted a hearing of the City Council.