Portland Veteran Firemen’s Association Memorial Sunday Service
Service held in remembrance of fallen firefighters
What: This Sunday, the City of Portland Fire Department, Portland
Veteran Firemen’s Association and the City of South Portland Fire
Department will hold their annual Memorial Sunday Service in honor
of firefighters who lost their lives in service to these two cities.
First held in 1892 to remember all deceased firefighters, and now
held on the first Sunday in October every year, this service has
become an important tradition for the surviving family and friends
of those firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty as
well as the firefighting community. Sunday’s memorial service marks
the 100th anniversary of the Portland Veteran Firemen’s Monument
dedication, which was erected in 1913.
The names of twenty Portland firefighters and two South Portland
firefighters will be read as a bell tolls including Hoseman Thomas
Burnham of Engine Company 2, who lost his life April 28, 1903
fighting the Holyoke Wharf fire that a month later claimed the life
of Hoseman Clarence Johnson of Engine Company 3, Deputy Chief
William Steele who died as a result of the inhalation of nitric acid
fumes from a carboy spill in the basement of the HH Hay’s Drug Store
in 1913, and Private Thomas O’Connor, who lost his life July 12,
1960, when Engine 4 and Ladder 3 collided at the intersection of
Spring and Brackett Streets responding to an alarm on Orchard
Street. The memorial serves as a reminder to the community of the
risks firefighters face as well as the deep connections firefighters
hold for each other and the cities they promise to protect.
The service begins with a procession led by bag pipe to the Portland
Veteran Firemen’s Association Monument. Members of both departments
and the veterans association will speak followed by Roll Call of the
members who died in the line of duty. The memorial concludes with
the laying of floral wreaths.
When: Sunday, October 6, 2013
Noon
Where: Forest City Cemetery
232 Lincoln Street, South Portland