Updated: Monday, December 27, 1999 - 4 PM
Thousands Honor Iowa Firefighters
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Firefighters, Children Mourned
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Thousands Attend Memorial
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1999 Deadly Year for Firefighters
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GREG SMITH
Associated Press Writer
KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) -- A firefighter's cap rested on a small table beside the casket of slain Assistant Fire Chief Dave McNally today as family, friends and firefighters from across the nation attended his funeral Mass.
AP World Wide Photos/Charlie Neibergall
Six-year-old Madison Bitting holds the hand of her mother Colleen Stevens Bitting, who is holding a folded fireman's flag, during the memorial service for her father Jason, and the two other deceased firefighters in Keokuk, Iowa, Sunday, Dec. 26, 1999. Bitting and two others were killed while trying to save the lives of three Keokuk children on Dec. 22 during a house fire.
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McNally, 48, and two other Keokuk firefighters were killed Dec. 22 while trying to save a woman and her children from their burning duplex.
Three of the children also died.
About 600 people crowded into All Saints Church for McNally's service.
``Even in our shock and our struggle to make sense of these terrible losses, we cannot move on without faith,'' said the Rev. Brian Shepley. ``David would be the first to turn to faith.''
The Roman Catholic priest recalled sharing meals and spending time with McNally and his family. ``I've come to appreciate what a wonderfully kind man David was,'' he said.
After the service, McNally's casket was placed on a Fire Department pumper truck draped in purple for the procession to a cemetery.
Separate services also were scheduled today for the other two firefighters, Jason Bitting, 29, and Nathan Tuck, 39.
AP World Wide Photos/John Gaps III
Bagpipers play as they pass by the caskets during the memorial service for the three dead firefighters in Keokuk, Iowa, Sunday, Dec. 26, 1999.
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The three men died trying to save Melissa Cooper and her four children.
Cooper, 26, and her son Jacob McFarland, 4, have been released from a hospital. Her twin toddlers and 7-year-old daughter died, and their funerals were held Sunday.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
On Sunday, an estimated 2,500 firefighters from as far away as Los Angeles and Worcester, Mass. _ where six firefighters died in a warehouse blaze earlier this month _ joined some 1,500 others in this southeast Iowa town for an emotional service punctuated by the mournful sound of bagpipes.
``Today we honor three men who unselfishly gave their lives performing their duties as firefighters,'' Fire Chief Mark Wessel said at the memorial service in the gymnasium of Keokuk Senior High School.
Relatives of the three men cried quietly when they were presented with gold medals from the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents 230,000 firefighters in the United States and Canada.
A bell symbolizing the firefighters' last fire call rang out at the end of the service.
More than 100 fire trucks were driven to Keokuk for the service and funerals. Two were parked outside the high school entrance with their ladders raised to support a U.S. flag.
``We really are an extended family,'' said Dave Van Holstyn, a fire lieutenant from Grand Rapids, Mich., who left home Christmas night to attend the memorial service. ``I think everyone knows it might happen, but you never really expect it.''
MEMORIAL FUNDS ESTABLISHED
A memorial fund has been established for the benefit of the
families of the fallen fire fighters.
Donations and letters of sympathy can be sent to:
- Keokuk Firefighters Memorial Fund
Keokuk Savings Bank
501 Main St
Keokuk, Ia. 52632
(319) 524-2329
- Keokuk Fire Fighter Memorial Fund
c/o Keokuk Fire Department
111 South 13th Street
Keokuk, IA 52632
- For surviving family members Melissa Cooper and Jacob McFarland:
Church of Christ
220 S. 13th St.
Keokuk, Ia. 52632
(319) 524-4814
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