A 'fireman’s fireman,' friends remember Mark Amore of McHenry Township Fire

Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Fire Protection District chief Tom Krueger was as devastated as anyone Thursday when he heard that fireman-paramedic Mark Amore had died.

Amore, 46, was working another job, doing excavating at Ben Watts Marina in Fox Lake when a Bobcat machine he was operating rolled over a seawall and into the water, trapping him inside.

Amore, a McHenry resident and former member of the McHenry Township Fire Protection District, was taken to Northwestern McHenry Hospital, where he died from the injuries suffered in the accident.

“I pretty much envied him because of his lifestyle,” Krueger said. “He was always on his boat, living life to the fullest. He influenced so many people. Everybody knew Amore, he was like the Mayor of McHenry. He loved the fire service. In the fire service, we called him a ‘fireman’s fireman,’ which is probably the best compliment you can get.”

Amore and his wife Jaimie have a 5-year-old son Ayden and a 3-year-old daughter Brynlee. Amore followed his father, Wayne, into the fire service. Wayne was the first full-time fire chief for the McHenry Township and current chief Tony Huemann is its second.

“I can’t believe it. Just, just can’t be possible,” Huemann said. “There’s just no way it’s possible. [MTFPD] Trustee Mark Justen just passed away here [March 29]. Mark was a pallbearer to Trustee Justen. I saw Mark at the cemetery and got a chance to shake his hand and thank him for helping. It just can’t be true.”

Wayne Amore and Mark Justen’s families became close friends through their years of working together.

The wake for Mark Amore will be from 1 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at Justen Funeral Home, 3700 Charles Miller Drive in McHenry. As is tradition, MTFPD and LRFPD brothers and sisters will stand guard Amore's casket for
24 hours a day for the entirety of the time he is at Justen Funeral Home.

In accordance with Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay-at-home order regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the services will not be open to the public. Those wishing to pay their respects will be allowed to drive by the funeral home, but are asked to not exit their vehicles.

The funeral will be held 11 a.m. Wednesday and will be live streamed. Individual and fire apparatus will be allowed to participate in the procession from the church to the cemetery, but will not be permitted to leave their vehicles.

Funeral director Robert Justen explained that the drive-through procedure as follows: The casket will be placed in the front vestibule, so people can drive through the carport and park for 15 to 30 seconds, then pull ahead and stop to pay their respects to the family. Also, people will be there to take information and addresses for the family for later on.

“We want to give people the opportunity to show support, but respect our current situation,” Justen said.

Mike Majercik, in his 29th year as a McHenry fireman-paramedic, remembers when Mark Amore broke in with McHenry.

“He was a 15- or 16-year-old kid coming around the firehouse all the time with his dad, who was assistant chief at that time,” said Majercik, who also served as a pallbearer at Mark Justen’s funeral. “I got to know him then. When he was old enough, five years later, he was able to get on. To say it’s a tragedy doesn’t even do it justice.”

Away from the fire stations, Amore was someone friends say enjoyed his free time. He spent many free hours boating in the summer and snowmobiling in the winter months.

“He was a great guy, he was very social, he was always out around a lot of people,” Majercik said. “He got along with everybody. We’re all going to miss him. It’s going to be a rough time for a while here.”

With his father as McHenry chief and two uncles who also were firemen, Mark Amore seemed destined to work in the fire service. Huemann said Amore was an exemplary fireman.

“He was passionate about it,” Huemann said. “He was involved with training a lot of the new, younger firefighters. He was a very good firefighter, a very good paramedic. One of the skills Mark had: as a lieutenant, he had the opportunity to coordinate and command a lot of fires. He was a great incident commander.”

Wayne Amore and his wife, Christine, were in Arizona on Thursday when they heard about their son. It is the third death close to the Amores in three weeks. Mark Justen was Wayne Amore’s best man in his wedding, and Wayne Amore lost a brother-in-law in Arizona on Thursday shortly before Mark Amore’s accident.

“Shocked, saddened, mad, all of the above,” Majercik said. “He’s someone I’ve remained friends with, I’m friends with his family, I worked under his dad, I was assistant chief. I’ve known the whole family for a long time, I know his wife, know his kids. … It’s horrible.”

Mark Amore worked for both McHenry and Lincolnshire-Riverwoods’ districts for several years. Krueger got to Lincolnshire-Riverwoods about the same time Amore started there.

“He was a great influence on the younger members,” Krueger said. “He was always trying to teach the younger guys about everything. He was just an all-around great guy and he’s going to be missed.”