The line of survivors of fallen firefighters wrapped around the walking path some 200 feet at dinner time. As family members started to make their way to the tents, I stopped for a moment to see just how many people were in the line: It was about 300. At that moment, it hit me: The toll of 2019’s and 2020’s firefighter deaths left hundreds of fathers and mothers, younger and older siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, boyfriends and girlfriends without loved ones, who died in service to their community. The line continued to grow, and in just a short period of time, they would be honored.
Last month, I had the opportunity to work alongside the staff and volunteers at the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Memorial Weekend on the campus of the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, MD. It’s a weekend that I never will forget for several reasons: the number of survivors, the planning and collaboration that goes into transporting and housing the survivors, and the incredible group of firefighters who came to do their part to honor the fallen and their survivors.
Firefighters from departments big and small, paid and volunteer, military and the U.S. Forest Service, showed up en masse to do their part. No matter where they came from to be in attendance, they were all one family whose dedication and commitment to never forgetting allowed the family members to navigate Memorial Weekend. Yes, the fire service is a family, but this was a particularly special group.
I always wanted to help at Memorial Weekend, but the timing never was right. By chance, I happened to run into Greg Collier, who is a former Mount Laurel, NJ, Fire Department battalion chief and a longtime friend, at Firehouse Expo. He asked whether I was interested in joining “Team Burlington” in support of the Memorial Weekend, and I immediately said yes.
Team Burlington—originally composed of firefighters from Burlington County, NJ, along with others—was assigned to work in the tents where the families of the fallen fire service members, along with their fire service escorts, honor guard and band members, support staff and others, ate during the weekend.
In addition to eating in the tents, for some, it was a chance to sit in the shade for a bit or to let their guard down while chatting with family or for a quiet moment to reflect on the weekend’s activities.
For me, it was a chance not only to give back to the fire service but an amazing opportunity to put faces with the names of the fallen. Working at Firehouse, we see every fallen firefighter’s name published in a Firehouse.com story and memorialized through the magazine’s monthly dedication to the fallen. Seeing the families and recalling their stories really opened my eyes to the overall loss from each year’s LODDs. Seeing their parents, spouses, children or other loved ones really made me understand how deep the loss is felt outside of the firehouse family. Unfortunately, I’ve known several people to be honored over the years, but add in each year’s roll of honor, and it’s almost unfathomable.
I spoke with a couple who lost their young son in a fire on a day when I was handling news coverage for Firehouse.com. I shared with them how I believed that the words that were spoken by a local dignitary after their son’s death illustrated just how dedicated that he was in his short few years in the fire service and how he is a role model for firefighters who have his zeal for the fire service. Their faces lit up, and they thanked me for remembering him and the words that were said months ago. They shared how their son’s department took them into their family and how Memorial Weekend honored not only their son but they, themselves, as survivors.
As I packed up and left the National Fire Academy campus Monday morning, I walked past the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial. It was covered with raindrops from a storm that passed through the Emmitsburg area overnight. Despite that fact, I allowed myself to wonder whether those drops on the monument that was constructed in 1981 could have been tear drops from the big firehouse in the sky, as all of the fallen had a chance to shed tears at the Memorial as their loved ones did there themselves that weekend.
