Wheeling Fire Department Holds Fallen Firefighter Ceremony
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Thursday was a solemn day for Wheeling Fire Department Lt. Rick Brown. It marked the department’s annual Fallen Firefighter Ceremony, when the 10 Wheeling firefighters who died in the line of duty are remembered. The date of the ceremony — the date the last firefighter was lost — holds a special meaning. That firefighter, Assistant Fire Chief Robert Foster, was Brown’s great uncle.
Brown remembered the stories his Uncle Bob told about being a firefighter. He was in junior high in 1991 when Foster died and, while his great uncle may be gone, those stories and his memories of Foster live on in Brown’s chosen career.
“I had no intentions of ever going into the fire service until I was older,” Brown said following Thursday’s ceremony. “When I got hired on with Wheeling, I remembered the stories he told around Christmastime. To live those stories and experience the camaraderie and the brotherhood we have as firefighters, it has been an honor.”
The annual ceremony, held by the city’s fallen firefighter memorial near WesBanco Arena, honors the 10 who gave their lives serving the Wheeling community — Foster in 1991, Firefighter Thomas McCue in 1868; Firefighter Bartholomew Link in 1868; Firefighter Charles Carrell in 1869; Capt. Charles Ferguson in 1914; Engineer William M. McGee in 1920; Assistant Chief Charles “Cap” Beiswenger in 1932; Engineer Wilbert “Red” Nolan in 1955; Assistant Chief John C. Donovan Sr. in 1956; and Capt. Vincent Greene in 1970. Their names were read aloud by Chief Inspector Clint Landis.
A bell was tolled once for each fallen firefighter, then in a “1-3-1” pattern signaling all firefighters’ return to quarters. The ceremony also memorialized the presumptive line of duty deaths of firefighters lost to cancer over the years.
Wheeling Fire Chief Jim Blazier told the crowd assembled Thursday that this ceremony is an important one for both the department and the community.
“As time slips away, future generations of family and firefighters only know these folks by the memories shared by those who knew them,” Blazier said. “It is important for us to understand the impact on their families.
“October 29 is a symbolic day in the Wheeling Fire Department and I pray to our Heavenly Father every day that this date never changes.”
Brown agreed that, if Oct. 29 remains the annual remembrance, then the fire department has done something right.
“It’s a tribute to the training that the department provides us, the hard work we put in,” he said, “and, honestly, that God has blessed us to not lose anyone else.”