New Haven Register, Conn.
(TNS)
Oct. 28—HARTFORD — Being a firefighter was not just a job for Robert "Sharkey" Sharkevich Sr., his sister said Monday.
Karen Letizio told a church full of mourners during Sharkevich's funeral that her brother worked 47 years in the fire service, volunteering with the Wethersfield Volunteer Fire Department for 22 after a 25-year career as a Hartford firefighter.
"It was not just his vocation, it was his calling," Letizio said.
Sharkevich died last Tuesday while battling a massive brush fire on Lamentation Mountain on the border of Berlin and Meriden.
"I so aspire to be even half of the firefighter he was," his nephew, Gary Sharkevich Jr., a deputy fire chief in Wethersfield, said during Monday's service.
Letizio and Gary Sharkevich were the first of three speakers to eulogize Sharkevich, 66.
Hundreds of family, friends and firefighters from around Connecticut attended the funeral at the cavernous Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford, where his firefighter helmets sat atop small tables, one on each side of the casket.
People lined the streets to watch the procession to the church, some with hands over their hearts. Motorcycles led the line of vehicles, which included buses and a fire truck carrying his flag-draped coffin.
Gary Sharkevich talked about the lighter side of his uncle, who he said was a bit of a prankster. Still, he said, "Although he was the biggest jokester, and a master of one-liners, Uncle Rob also had a heart of gold."
Some of the light-hearted moments included talks about their shared love of firefighting and the younger generation's rise through the ranks, Gary Sharkevich said.
The elder Sharkevich's son, who shares his name, told his father after he got promoted to lieutenant that his dad would have to start calling him by his new title, causing the elder Sharkevich to laugh, Gary said.
"He just laughed and said, 'Yeah, OK, Rob. Sounds cool. So anyway...' "
And when Robby Sharkevich told his father he also would have to start calling his nephew Gary "chief," the elder Sharkevich laughed even harder, Gary Sharkevich said, saying, "'Chief? He's not even a fireman anymore, Rob. The Sharkeviches are firefighters. He's probably in his office doing paperwork.'"
There were serious talks, too, he said. Once, his uncle said to him, " 'You know Gar, this line of service is rewarding, but there is always the possibility that one day you don't return home to your family,' " he said.
Gary Sharkevich said he and other members of the Sharkevich firefighting family heard the dreaded call come over the radio after the accident.
"Robby and I looked at each other in shock," he said and they rushed to the smoky scene.
"As we got closer, the smoke got thicker," Gary Sharkevich said. They eventually got to his uncle and they carried him down the mountain, he said.
Sharkevich died Oct. 22 when a utility vehicle rolled over on top of him while he and others were fighting the brush fire on Lamentation Mountain in Berlin near the Meriden line. Three other firefighters were injured as well.
The stubborn fire continues to burn on the mountain, which straddles Berlin, Meriden and Middletown. A fire official said Friday that it is believed to have been sparked by a campfire that was not put out properly.
John Nolan said Robert Sharkevich has displayed courage as a firefighter and he admired him for it. In his many years in the fire service, Sharkevich has pulled people out of burning buildings and performed countless other rescues.
Scharkevich went to the scene of a deadly warehouse fire in Worcester, Mass., where some of the six firefighters who died in 1999 were still missing. He also went to Ground Zero on 9/11, John Mudry, another Hartford Fire Department retiree, said outside the church Monday.
And when Nolan's brother Dan, also a longtime member of the Hartford Fire Department, died recently, Sharkevich stepped up and helped his family through the ordeal, Nolan said in church.
"I will never forget their immediate and extensive support when we lost my brother earlier this year," Nolan said.
Nolan said the best way to honor Sharkevich is to prioritize the needs of others before your own needs like he did.
And to "smile that Sharkey smile, and spread that Sharkey kindness, throughout the world."
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