The News-Times, Danbury, Conn.
(TNS)
Nov. 4—NEWTOWN — Flags were lowered to half-staff here at the historic flagpole on Main Street and across the state Monday as Newtown said goodbye to a "beloved community hero" and assistant fire chief who was struck and killed by a car in Sandy Hook just weeks after he retired.
"Our state mourns the loss of a dedicated leader and beloved community hero who never failed to do whatever he could to help," said Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz in a statement. "Botsford Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Pete Blomberg devoted more than 50 years of his life to protecting and serving the community he loved so much. My heart breaks that his life was taken as he made his way to the annual Newtown Board of Fire Commissioners meeting."
A funeral Mass Monday morning at St. Rose of Lima Church where Blomberg went to grade school was a scene of solemnity as firefighters in full dress and white gloves formed two rows on either side of the sanctuary entrance on Church Hill Road.
Sun broke through the clouds, and the quiet main road was still as the body of the 1969 Newtown High School graduate in a flag-draped coffin was brought to the church atop a Botsford Fire Rescue engine, to the sound of bagpipes.
Engines from Newtown's five companies formed a wall in front of the church to give mourners privacy as the coffin was lowered from the truck and brought into the sanctuary.
Both the funeral Mass and the burial and firefighter graveside ceremony at St. Rose Cemetery in Sandy Hook were closed to the media at the family's request, Police Chief David Kullgren said.
Blomberg was killed last week when he was struck by a car as he crossed Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook shortly after 6 p.m.
"This is yet another tragic reminder that we must do more to take care of each other and to ensure that we all make it home safely," Bysiewicz said. "We must all strive to be safer drivers — go slower and be much more cautious. My thoughts are with assistant chief Blomberg's loved ones and the Newtown firefighting community during this incredibly difficult time."
The father of four, who "never said 'no'" when there was a call for help" died at age 72, six weeks after he retired as a maintenance worker for Newtown schools, according to his obituary.
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