Les Yost, led city
firefighters, dies at 68

A memorial service is being planned for Les Yost, the former president of International Association of Firefighters Local 22.
A longtime resident of Aubrey Avenue in Torresdale, Yost died June 29 in an assisted-living facility in North Carolina. He was 68.
Yost retired last year as the union’s vice president. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in the last year or so.
Local 22 has not settled on a date for a memorial service. His family held a private service in North Carolina.
The former union leader is survived by his wife Barbara; a daughter, Christine Sellers; sons Kurt and Andrew; and three granddaughters.
A Fishtown native, he graduated from Jules Mastbaum High School in 1957. Two years later, he joined the Philadelphia Fire Department.
In 1981, he was elected the union’s recording secretary. He became vice president in 1983 and ousted John McMenamin to rise to the presidency in 1987.
Yost won six two-year terms as president, earning re-election in 1997 by 11 votes.
He declined to run for a seventh term in 1999 and returned to active duty at Ladder 1, at 1541-47 Parrish St.
By 2001, he was back with the union, elected as a trustee. He was elected vice president in 2003 and served four years until his retirement from the union. He retired from the fire department on Jan. 1, 2004.
As union president, he worked to keep dues low, increase wages and health and pension benefits, improve working conditions and avoid concessions for his members and maintain service for the public.
He also spent much of his time visiting sick and injured firefighters at home and in the hospital. And he endorsed political candidates who supported firefighter causes. ••