Lieutenant Blackley was assigned to Engine 2, was one of three firefighters seriously injured when a wall collapsed during a fire at the Design-Spec Seating Company at 338 Hernando Street at 5:27 a.m. on February 25, 1987. He was transported to the Regional Medical Center where he died. The deliberately set fire began in a nearby vacant house and spread to the seating company. Lt. Bobby Blackley, 47, had been with the department for twenty-five years. He was married and the father of five children.