Remembering firefighters lost in the last year: 'Each Memorial Day is bittersweet'

Among the Memorial Day observances on Monday was one honoring Chicago firefighters who died in the last year.The annual remembrance predates Memorial Day, according to Chicago Fire Department chaplain Thomas Mulcrone, starting when the holiday was known as Decoration Day. Congress made Memorial Day a national holiday in 1971.Now in its 89th year, the service honored nine firefighters who died off duty and 120 retirees who died in 2023, as well as two firefighters who died on duty since last Memorial Day: Andrew “Drew” Price and Lt. Kevin Ward.The service started about 9:45 a.m. outside the Church of the Holy Family, 1080 W. Roosevelt Road. About 100 cadets, joined by some active-duty firefighters, formed a line and, led by a fire department color guard, filed into the church. CFD firefighters and cadets file into the Church of the Holy Family, 1080 W. Roosevelt Road, on Monday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-TimesIn all, four Chicago firefighters died in 2023, the , when four firefighters also died.“It was an anomaly, but it was still significant,” Mulcrone said.Last November, Price, 39, was in the roof of a burning four-story building in the 2400 block of North Lincoln Avenue when he fell through a skylight shaft, landing on the floor in the basement. He died of his injuries at Illinois Masonic Medical Center.Ward more than two weeks earlier after he became trapped in the basement of a burning home near O’Hare Airport.“Each Memorial Day is bittersweet,” Mulcrone said before the service. “A lot of them I knew personally. … it’s a sad day, but it’s a day when their families are going to be able to celebrate their careers, their lives and their colleagues as well.”