Widow of firefighter remembers her husband

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Teresa Roberts was scanning the personal ads in a newspaper years ago when she came across one from a Baltimore firefighter. He sounded sincere, honest, kind — obviously dedicated to his job — so she set up a date at the Golden Ring Mall.

And so begins the story of her romance with Allan Roberts, her husband, who loved the Ravens and the Three Stooges. He died Tuesday while fighting a southeast Baltimore row house fire.

“That’s who he is, that’s what he loved to do,” Roberts said. “You hope every day, when they leave for work, they’re going to come back.”

Two days after his death, Roberts was juggling funeral arrangements with visits to her husband’s fire station, to the charred ruins of the row house and to the hospital where another firefighter remains under treatment.

She told him not to feel bad that he was pulled free from the raging fire before Allan.

“I said, ‘Don’t let this deter you, if this is something you really love,’ ” Roberts said. “My husband would probably tell him the same thing. It happens in this line of work.”

Family from Florida and friends from around the fire department will gather Monday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen for his funeral. Nine years ago on Tuesday, many of the same people gathered for Teresa and Allan’s wedding.

“It was a gorgeous day, it was beautiful. It wasn’t really cool,” she said. True to style, Allan and his firefighter friends were all laughter and teasing. Time came to cut the cake and Teresa was nowhere to be found — so they joked that she was in the bathroom, slitting her wrists.

“Nothing malicious, it’s done in fun,” she said. “I got a pretty thick skin over the years.”

Roberts loved Curly and Moe, loved James Cagney. His cooking specialties were red gravy and chili. He always made way too much, accustomed to cooking for the firefighters.

Roberts leaves behind four children: Samantha, 13, Kaitlyn, 11, Jacob, 5, and 18-month-old Daniel.

kcullinan@baltimoreexaminer.com

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