Firefighters From Across The Country Attend Memorial Service For 3 Baltimore Firefighters
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Firefighters from across the country and across the world traveled to Baltimore to honor three of their own who died in the line of service.
Thousands of firefighters showed up at Wednesday morning's memorial service for fallen firefighters Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler, and Kenny Lacayo. Even though most of them didn't know the fallen heroes personally, they told WJZ it's still family.
The show of force came from far and wide, even from outside the country.
"I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina"
"A suburb inside of Columbus, Ohio - Whitehall, Ohio."
"Uh, Newport, Rhode Island."
"The FDNY, we came down with quite a few people," said Kevin Woods of the Fire Department of New York City. "Everybody in the fire service is family, not only in your department in your local firehouse but throughout the country."
When one falls - they all feel the pain.
"It's pretty important to me to remember the sacrifice the men and women make when they die," said Sam Allen of Norfolk, North Carolina. "I'm here for everyone behind me really, I mean this is you go anywhere in America and you tell someone you're a fireman, that means something."
Anthony Locks pulled out his passport to honor the three heroes.
"I am from France from Marseilles, France," he said. "For me it's very important to be here."
"It's our sister city and it is a brotherhood, and we take care of our own and we want to short our support from Philadelphia," said Jose Echeverri of the Philadelphia Fire Department.
To be in Baltimore Wednesday is to stand beside your fellow firefighter, brothers and sisters in the line of duty.
"Just the sheer sign of the amount of people that come out to it, it shows the brotherhood, it shows the caring that goes into this profession," said Andrew Kavanaugh of the Wilmington, Delaware Fire Department.
The overwhelming show of support is just what firefighters do, they said.
"Show support in numbers, and that's what we do."
"We're sorry we have to but it's the right thing to do."
"You see people come from all over come to pay their respects to take care of people, it's what we do."
Many firefighters are headed back home tomorrow to their respective cities and towns, but not before a lot of them exchanged city patches with one another as a keepsake of this time they spent together.
