Flash player is required to view weather conditions. Download

site web  

When Fairfield Twp. Fire Department commissions a new fire engine into service next week, the memory of fallen firefighters will make every run.

Department officials decided to emblazon both sides of the 2008 Sutphen Fire Engine with the names of local and national heroes including:

• Chris Wisner, a Fairfield Twp. firefighter who died Jan. 17 following a three-year battle against acute myelogenous leukemia.

• Capt. Robin Broxterman and firefighter Brian Schira, two Colerain Twp. firefighters who died April 4.

• Oscar Armstrong, a Cincinnati firefighter who died in 2003.

• Bill Ellison, a Miami Twp. firefighter who died in 2001.

• Bill Gray Sr., a Fairfield Twp. firefighter who died in 1986.

• FDNY, to memorialize the 343 New York City Fire Department firefighter/paramedics who died during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

• Charleston 9 — the nine firefighters who died last year in a Charleston, S.C., warehouse fire, the largest loss of fire department personnel in a single incident since 9/11.

The new vehicle is scheduled to go into service Monday, July 7.

Fairfield Twp. Fire Chief David Downie said the department planned the mobile memorial shortly after the fire that claimed Broxterman and Schira.

"We as a group decided we would come up not only with those two names but some of the recent names who have died in the line of duty to remind everybody of the hazards of the job, the dangers and that their sacrifices will never be forgotten," Downie said.

Lisa Wisner, Chris' mother, said when she and her family learned of the department's memorial to their son two weeks ago, they could not believe it. The department held fundraising events to help Chris Wisner with living and medical expenses during his illness and organized a procession and ceremony to honor him after he died.

"I feel completely honored and I know Christopher would have, too, to be on there with those other firefighters."