You know that moment when you are sitting in your house and you hear bagpipes outside your window and you realize it’s time for that service you planned to attend? Not so much? Well, that’s what happened to me a couple of days ago. I pulled on my shoes, grabbed my camera and walked out to the ceremony.
Called the “Day of Honor,” the annual event reminds us of the firemen who have lost their lives in the line of duty, while also noting those who have died in the last year from other causes. Held in front of the downtown fire station on a section of the property dubbed “Fallen Firefighter’s Memorial Park,” the somber occasion drew a crowd of around seventy-five, including most city council members and our mayor.
Bagpiper John Rose and the K.F.D. Honor Guard opened with a processional into the park area, which was followed by a moving rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” sung by Captain Scott Warwick. He later sang the Lord’s Prayer. An invocation led by Captain Joe Lee preceded the compelling narrative of seventy-eight year-old Carlene Smith-Britton who eloquently re-counted how her father died in 1952 when she was sixteen years old.
On the way to a fire, driving the chief’s vehicle, Carl Eugene Smith was killed by a collision with another engine coming from another station. The two vehicles had their sirens blaring and, so, didn’t hear each other. Realizing he was about to die, she said he turned to the chief and said, “This is it.”
She remembers the outpouring of support that followed from the firemen in the days at the hospital and at the funeral. She told how they took up a collection to pay off the mortgage of the Island Home house the family had just moved into a week before the accident. She said he would be proud to know that one of his grand-children is now a fireman. It humanized the list of names and the ritual involved in the ceremony.
Mayor Rogero and Chief Stan Sharp each made a few remarks and a bell was sounded for each of the twenty-four men who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The two then placed the wreath beside the commemorative statue and bugler Pat Armstrong played taps followed by bagpiper John Rose playing Amazing Grace. A benediction and recessional ended the service.
From my home I hear the firemen go out to the various calls. Many of the calls are false alarms while others are more serious. For those of us not in such a position, it may be hard to comprehend what it must be like to know that each shift and each call, while likely routine, may well be extremely dangerous and that the list of Knoxville firefighters who have given their lives will not likely forever remain at twenty-four.
It’s a somber thought. And one to remember the next time you are around our downtown firemen or any others. What they do is critically important and their commitment is sometimes measured in injury or even death. Any time is a good time to thank a fireman, why not do it today?
