New name added to Calgary's list of fallen firefighters at 2024 memorial service

The name of another Calgary firefighter was added to a list of the fallen at an annual memorial service on Tuesday.

The Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service was held outside Calgary city hall at noon.

The service paid tribute to the Calgary Fire Department (CFD) firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty, including nine during active firefighting and 63 due to illnesses related to firefighting.

This year, a new plaque was added to the three-storey monument at the Walls of Memory/Lantern of Light located at Calgary's Police Officers and Firefighters Tribute Plaza.

That name was Billy B. Stewart, a senior firefighter who died due to an occupational illness.

"As we reflect on those Calgary firefighters whose days numbered far fewer than they deserved, we remember their stories," said CFD Chief Steve Dongworth.

"Each one left a legacy of bravery and love that we carry forward in our hearts. We stand shoulder to shoulder to remember not only how they died, but how they lived."

Dongworth says the CFD has made "great strides" in refining training and improving firefighter wellness over the years.

"However, we must remain vigilant as new technologies, new construction, societal change and climate change all impact our ever-changing world and in turn present new risks to our firefighters."

In attendance were Andy and Donna Sharman, whose son Derek was a firefighter with the department.

He passed away in 2021 from an occupational illness.

"We were very taken by surprise and I don't think that we've ever recovered," said Andy Sharman.

"I wish there was a million and a half Calgarians here today to celebrate what the fire department does for us.

"They give us a safety net under which we live."

Derek was 35 years old at the time of his passing. 

The ceremony comes just a month after Calgarian Morgan Kitchen was killed while battling a wildfire in Jasper.

While Kitchen was a Calgary resident, he didn't work for the CFD, and was based out of Rocky Mountain House, about 200 kilometres north of Calgary.

"As a mom, to know that your son died doing something honourable and meaningful, and he was doing what he loved, there are many worse ways to live, right?" said Joni Avram, Kitchen's mother.

"I said at his funeral, when he was a little kid, he told me when he was only five, he said, 'Mama, I don't want to die. I want to be alive for my whole life,' and I always said he lived his life fully alive and that was just a blessing to see."

At the ceremony on Tuesday, Dongworth offered his condolences on Kitchen’s passing.

"I think about him constantly," he said.

"We're all part of the same family; this is the Calgary stream of the family, but firefighting is truly a national and international family.

"It doesn't matter if you're a wildland firefighter, as Morgan was, or what we would call a structural firefighter, like all these folks are here today. It really doesn't make any difference whether you're a volunteer fire department or a professional fire department or a composite fire department or an airport fire department. It's all very similar work, it's all dangerous work and it's all something where we come together, particularly when people have been lost or injured."