Rostraver firefighter remembered for dedication to department

There was an important rule to remember at the Bunardzya house — don’t turn down the volume of the scanner.

Also, keep quiet when the fire sirens are blaring. Chryste Zimmerman said she quickly learned those moments were key for her dad John “Bill” Bunardzya to know where the emergency was so he could get there on a fire truck.

“He would just be waiting to hear the details,” she said.

But on the beach vacations the Bunardzya family took, Zimmerman said she relished in the fact that he couldn’t jump up and respond to an emergency.

“The vacation was always much needed for him because that was the only time he took a vacation,” said his wife Janet Yasko Bunardzya.

The firefighter inside him never left though — Bill Bunardzya was always aware of where a fire truck was headed, even while at the beach, his family said.

Bunardzya, 73, died Sunday around 8 a.m. at his Washington Township, Fayette County home, hours after he responded to a call with Rostraver Central Fire Department. Deputy Fire Chief Justin Shawley said Bunardzya went with the department Saturday afternoon to remove a tree down on a road.

Fayette County Coroner Bob Baker announced in a social media post that it was considered a line of duty death. That is the case when a death happens within 24 hours of a call.

Bunardzya spent the majority of his life volunteering as a firefighter and was with Rostraver Central for the last 20 years, Shawley said.

“He was one of our most active responders,” Shawley said. “It really comes as a shock to us.”

Bunardzya was a dependable presence around the station, helping with fundraisers and community activities in what Shawley described as an “above average level of dedication.”

A Belle Vernon area native, he earned a degree from then California State Teachers College and an associates degree in fire science technology from Westmoreland County Community College, according to his obituary.

During the mid-1970s, he was fire protection engineer at the Allenport Plant of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Company and sometimes worked as a substitute teacher at area school districts.

More recently, he was a self-employed contractor, a skill he sometimes lended to the fire station if it was in need of repairs. Bunardzya previously was a volunteer with departments in Belle Vernon and North Belle Vernon, where he spent 12 years as its chief. He was involved in several fire-related organizations, including the Westmoreland County Firemens Association.

His family said he started as a junior firefighter.

“He started at an early age and that was him — he dedicated himself to the fire department, fighting fires,” said Janet Bunardzya, his wife of 42 years.

Bill Bunardzya is being remembered by his fellow firefighters and family as a sarcastic person who liked cracking jokes.

“He had kind of an indescribable personality and sense of humor,” Shawley said.

“He’s a very sarcastic man and he had that finesse of telling you what he thought with a smile,” Zimmerman said.

Bunardzya’s cause of death has not been released.

In addition to his wife, Zimmerman and her husband, Nicholas, of Rostraver, he is survived by daughter and son-in-law Kyra and John Barbiaux of Seven Fields; four grandchildren, Benjamin and Elizabeth Barbiaux and Westin and Lia Zimmerman; and a brother and sister-in-law, Vance and Kathy Bunardzya of Rostraver.

Visitation will be held Wednesday 4-8 p.m. at Ferguson Funeral Home and Crematory, 700 Broad St., Belle Vernon. Rostraver Central firefighters will hold a service at 7 p.m. A funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday.