A century ago, a brick wall collapsed on a group of firefighters battling a winter inferno at the Bangor Opera House on Main Street, killing two and injuring five, reports the Bangor Daily News.
Walter J. Morrill, lieutenant of Hose 3, and John Leonard, a member of the same company, died around 2 a.m. Jan. 15, 1914, while dousing the fire, which was first spotted about two hours earlier. The brick wall of the “scenery loft,” which rose 15 or 20 feet above the main roof, fell on the firefighters, burying them in a pile of rubble and timber.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, members of the Bangor Fire Department will honor the sacrifice of their fallen predecessors and pay respects to their families during a 10 a.m. ceremony at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. The public is invited to attend.
Several members of Morrill’s family will be in attendance, according to Chandler Corriveau, a six-year Bangor firefighter and paramedic, who was tasked with organizing the remembrance and tracking down relatives of the men who gave their lives. Morrill, who was 42 when he died, left behind six children. One of his sons, Walter J. Morrill II, would serve with the Bangor Fire Department as well.
Morrill has relatives in Maine and New Hampshire, according to Corriveau, including a great-great-grandson who still lives in the Highland Lane home Walter Morrill built in Bangor.
Corriveau said he has had less luck tracking down family members of John Leonard, who was 36 years old and newly married at the time of his death and doesn’t appear to have fathered any children. He also may not have had siblings, according to Corriveau.
“We’re still hoping we can find a relative,” Corriveau said.
The ceremony is expected to include an honor guard, bagpipes and flag presentation to the family members.
Corriveau said the event is being held on Sept. 11 because of the importance of that date to fire departments across the country, who use it to remember the sacrifice of hundreds of firefighters and other first responders who died in the line of duty in New York City after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Read more of the story here http://bit.ly/WiaUTB
