It was 1962 when Ralph Kachenmeister suffered a fatal heart attack while getting ready to leave his Toledo fire station on inspection duty.
It was not until the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department Memorial Service on Monday, though, that he received his place on Last Alarm, the statue that memorializes city firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The classification of Mr. Kachenmeister's heart attack as a line of duty death -- and the inclusion of his name on the statue across from Station #1 in Chub DeWolfe Park -- comes after a 2003 federal law recategorized heart attacks and strokes as line of duty deaths. His name was this year's only addition to the sculpture, which was created in remembrance of the 1961 Trail Fire that killed four firefighters and injured 80 firefighters and civilians. This was the fire department's 51st annual memorial ceremony.
In addition to the dedication of a wreath and plaque for Mr. Kachenmeister, Monday's ceremony also recognized the 45 other firefighters who have died in the line of duty since the fire department's inception in 1837, as well as the 18 retired firefighters who have passed away since last year's ceremony.
Before an audience of firefighters, police officers, public officials, and citizens, current and past fire department leaders spoke somberly of sacrifices made by firefighters for their communities.
"In the dictionary, 'hero' should just say 'firefighter,'" remarked Local 92 president Wayne Hartford.
In an interview after the service, Mayor Michael Bell thanked Toledo firefighters for their dedication and noted the importance of honoring them each year.
Deaths like Mr. Kachenmeister's can only officially be honored as occurring in the line of duty as a result of the 2003 Hometown Heroes Act, which was prompted by studies that found heart attacks to be the leading cause of on-duty deaths for firefighters.
Since the passage of the act, officials from the Toledo Fire Department and the firefighters museum have begun digging through historical station journals to uncover and reclassify on-duty heart attacks, seeking to ensure that firefighters like Mr. Kachenmeister receive proper commemoration on the memorial statue. They offered no estimate of how many such deaths may lie buried in department records.
On Last Alarm, Mr. Kachenmeister's name has been engraved after that of Michael Darrington, the last Toledo firefighter to lose his life in the line of duty. He passed away in 2009, the result of a heart attack at Station #14.
In his speech, Fire Chief Luis Santiago noted the elevated risk of health problems among firefighters.
"We have the stations, we have the rigs, and we have the fleets, which we perform regular inspections on. I'm not sure we're as good with our people," Chief Santiago said, calling firefighters the department's most valued resource and describing promoting health and wellness as a priority.
Copyright 2012 - The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
