JEREMY MEYER
Courtesy of The Gazette, Colorado Springs
Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette
Colorado Springs firefighters hang a giant American flag from a pedestrian bridge Friday over West Pikes Peak Avenue. Colorado Springs has rolled out a warm welcome for the families and friends of the 425 people whose names will be added to the memorial for fallen firefighters.
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Family members placed cards with photos of their loved ones below the names, they traced the names with crayons and thin paper, and they wiped away tears shed so many times over the past year. As Memorial Park prepared for today's ceremony for fallen firefighters, family members took time to memorialize the dead.
Thousands are expected to attend at the corner of Pikes Peak and Hancock avenues. Fire trucks and motorcycles will begin the event with a procession through the city that begins at 10:15 a.m.
Friday was for tuning up. Trumpeters practiced taps. A crew synchronized raising and lowering flags. Fire department bagpipeand-drum teams from across the nation met for the first time and played songs in unison while workers set up a stage.
IAFF Memorial Service
When: September 21, 2002
Where: Colorado Springs, CO
The 16th annual IAFF Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial Ceremony,
is expected to be the largest in the memorial’s history. honoring IAFF members who were
killed in the line of duty between June 2001 and June 2002.
The Gazette's Everyday Heroes Series:
>> Visit: The Gazette Memorial
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"When I look out there and see this, this is why we're doing this," said J.J. Halsey, a Colorado Springs firefighter and president of the local chapterofthe International Association of Fire Fighters. "This is why we've spent all of those long nights anddays preparing."
In front of him a crowd, gathered around the memorial wall, where names of firefighters are inscribed. Many came to view the wall for the first time since arriving in town for the ceremony.
Delia Villanueva stood near the wall and clutched a book of photographs of her son, Sergio Villanueva, a New York City firefighter killed in the World Trade Center collapse on Sept. 11, 2001.
A 1970 photograph taken from the back ofaboatoff the tip of Manhattan shows an infant Sergio in her arms. In the background is the city's skyline with the World Trade Center buildings being built.
Delia Villanueva traced her son's name in red, white and blue. She'll give the tracing to his sister because she doesn't want anything on her walls that reminds her of his death.
"I'm used to seeing him at home all of the time " she said. "It's strange to see his name in another state. I feel like I'm in another world." But the kindness of strangers and the warmth from people who don't know her, but respect her grief, impressed her.
"Out of this horror and this tragedy that we live with every day, the heart and the beauty of everyone came out," she said. "Everyone was saying how people around the country were hurt by this. Now I can relate."
Throughout Colorado Springs, firefighters walked with blue shirts emblazoned with names of their cities and departments. They greeted one another talked about , their losses and exchanged knowingglances.
The ceremony will honor 425 fallen firefighters, 343 of them New York firefighters. The rest worked in Canada and throughout the United States.
James Morrison and his family came to honor his brother Rob, who was killed in a St. Louis fire May 3. He doesn't think his brother's memory will get lost among the others.
"You have to realize other firefighters lost their lives too, " he said. "But this is great."
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