Cumpy’s T-Shirt Shop owner Andrew Romano was friends with Larry J. Leggio and John V. Mesh, the two Kansas City Fire Department veterans who died Monday battling a three-story blaze in the 2600 block of Independence Avenue.
Romano has done a lot of work for individual station houses through the years as a sports and apparel merchandiser in Pleasant Valley, because lots of his family and friends are firefighters.
Like so many others in Kansas City, Romano was rocked Monday by news that Leggio, 43, a 17-year department veteran, and Mesh, 39, a 13-year department veteran, died when the wall collapsed on them in the line of duty.