Firefighters from around North Carolina gathered in Raleigh to remember their fallen brothers and sisters at their annual memorial service on May 1. This year, seven names were added to the N.C. Fallen Firefighters Memorial - four of those from 2009 deaths and three from deaths that occurred in the 1970s. The honor guard and bagpipe band led a parade through downtown Raleigh to the memorial in Nash Square.
The following were honored: Gregory Carroll Cooke of the Salem District Volunteer Fire Department; Jimmy Lee Davis Sr. of the White Oak Volunteer Fire Department; Levi Henry Faulkner of the Farmville Fire Department; James Melville Jones of the NC Forestry Service; William Gray Parsons of the Millers Creek Volunteer Fire Department; Matthew Douglas Tramel of the Pembroke Fire Department; and Willis Henry Vandiford of the Bell Arthur Volunteer Fire Department.
