Compiled by Firehouse.Com News
The largest crowd ever to attend the IAFF's Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial in
Colorado Springs paid tribute to 59 U.S. and Canadian firefighters who lost
their lives in the performance of their duties.
The 14th annual event of the International Association of Fire Fighters,
was held Saturday. The service recognizes the deaths of nearly 1,000 IAFF-member
firefighters and emergency responders who have made the supreme sacrifice since
1976, when Congress passed the Public Service Officers Benefits bill and began to track line of duty deaths.
Hundreds of bagpipers opened the ceremony at the site of the memorial on the
foot of Pike's Peak and the Rocky Mountains with honor guards from fire departments
from throughout North America posting colors.
Of the 59 names added, six were those bravest taken in the Worcester
Cold Storage Warehouse fire in December. A caravan of firefighters, family members
and friends from the Massachusetts community made the journey to honor
firefighters Paul A. Brotherton, Jeremiah M. Lucey, Timothy P. Jackson, Joseph T. McGuirk and fire lieutenants Thomas E. Spencer and James F. Lyons III.
Among the other firefighters honored were Houston Firefighters Kim Smith and Lewis Mayo, who were killed
earlier this year battling an arson fire in a McDonald's restaurant. Five people were either convicted or pleaded guilty
this month in connection with their deaths.
Three Keokuk, Iowa firefighters who died trying to save three children from a burning house in December, just
weeks after the Worcester tragedy, were also among those recognized in the approximately two-hour long ceremony.
The keynote speaker was IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger
who urged the families of the fallen fire fighters to "celebrate the lives,
the service, and the triumphs" of the 59 IAFF members whose names were added to
the memorial's wall of honor.
"They are enshrined as heroes on this wall and their memories
will spur another generation of heroes to do what we must do in
our profession," Schaitberger said. "Each family of these fallen
fire fighters has suffered tremendous personal loss and we will
never forget that. But our society has gained because the sum total
of thelives saved by these brave individuals exceeds their loss by
a hundred-fold.," Schaitberger said.
"Our world is far richer for the time we had these fallen fire fighters
among us, but there is no doubt that their families, their friends, and our union
are much poorer without them."
Other speakers who addressed the standing-room-only
crowd included Colorado Springs' mayor, the Washington, D.C., fire chaplain and two
firefighter-poets who displayed the more tender side of a tough profession. Country
music singer Brian Cox sang his “Heroes Never Die.”
As the name of each fallen fire fighter was read aloud and a single bell
tolled in their honor, members of the honor guard contingent presented family
members with American or Canadian flags. A release of white balloons over the
IAFF Memorial depicting a fire fighter climbing down a ladder with a child in
his arms followed.
In October, the 19th Annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Sevice will honor 101
paid and volunteer firefighters who the United States Fire Administation reported died in the line of duty in 1999.
The event will be held at the site of the national memorial on the grounds of the National Fire Academy in
Emmitsburg, Md. on October 8, 2000.
The Worcester Teleram & Gazette and the International Association of Fire Fighters
contributed to this report
Thousands Attend IAFF Memorial Service
