5 fallen Florida firefighters will be honored this weekend. Here's who they are
The 44th National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend will also honor 70 more firefighters who died in previous years.
'Each of these 140 firefighters made the ultimate sacrifice in service to others – a profound sacrifice that defines true heroism,' Victor Stagnaro, CEO of the NFFF said in a release. 'Memorial Weekend is a time for our nation to come together to honor their bravery, to stand beside their families, and ensure their legacy lives on in every community they so selflessly served.'
There will be two events open to the public at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland: a candlelight service on Saturday, May 3, and a memorial service on Sunday, May 4. Both events will be livestreamed.
Private events will be held for the families and fire departments of the honored firefighters, the NFFF said.
In 2001, then-President George W. Bush signed Public Law 107-51 requiring the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff on all federal buildings to memorialize fallen firefighters each year, coinciding with the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service.
"When you lower your flag this year, you will recognize the brave men and women who died protecting their communities from natural and manmade emergencies and disasters and those who carry on the proud tradition," the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation said.
As of April 30, President Trump has not yet issued a proclamation for 2025, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not yet issued a proclamation ordering state flags to be lowered to half-staff. On April 25, DeSantis ordered flags to be flown at half-staff to honor fallen law enforcement officers around the state.
Here are the Florida firefighters who will be honored at the events. Information provided by the NFFF.
Ester, 51, died on May 10, 2024, after a 3½-year battle with cancer.
He devoted his life to the service of his community, starting with the Harbor City Volunteer Ambulance Squad and then the Satellite Beach Fire Department before joining the Melbourne Fire Department, where he retired as a lieutenant. Ester also served as a flight paramedic for First Flight and trained and mentored paramedics.
Ester is survived by his wife, Amy; his children, Eyan and Brett; and his stepchildren, Jordan, Trent, and Averi.
Geld, 65, died on December 23, 2023, from complications of cancer.
He began as a volunteer firefighter, ultimately joining the Melbourne Fire Department in 1988, where he trained others, built props for firefighter safety during training, and ran the driver development program. Geld also provided training at Florida Fire Training Institute and Eastern Florida State College.
Geld is survived by his wife, Jackie; children, JR (Nikki), Jason (Courtney), John, and Andy; and grandchildren, Rory, Brinn, Charlee, and Connor.
"Nate" Leonard, 43, died on January 12, 2022, from complications of cancer.
Since joining the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department in 2007, Leonard has earned a Unit Citation, three Lifesaving Commendations, and a Meritorious Duty Commendation. He served for many years on the department's Dive Rescue Team.
Leonard is survived by his wife, Nina; his parents, Jim and Marilyn; and his sister, Valerie.
O'Shea, 44, died on April 13, 2024, from an aortic aneurysm.
He began his 20-year career with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department in 2003, calling it 'the best job ever.' O'Shea saved countless lives, helped deliver at least eight babies, and even rescued several kittens along the way.
O'Shea is survived by his wife, Melanie; his son, Simon (18), and his daughter, Lily (11).
Tucker, 53, died on April 23, 2023, after a 22-month battle with glioblastoma brain cancer.
As a young boy, Tucker responded to calls with his grandfather, a forestry service employee who started several volunteer fire stations in Alabama. He went to serve 19 years as a firefighter and EMT. When Pasco County moved forward in cancer prevention, Tucker got the specialty certificates needed to work on their decontamination truck that rolled out in April 2020 and later moved to their special operations truck.
After his cancer diagnosis and treatment, Tucker moved to light duty but continued helping to train firefighters and make improvements in the training center. A new burn tower in the Pasco County Fire Rescue training center has been named for him.
Tucker is survived by his wife, Wendy; his son, Austin; his mother and stepfather, Carolyn and David McKoy; and his father and stepmother, Jerry and Theresa Tucker.
The candlelight service will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
A memorial service will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 4, 2025.
The NFFF will live stream both events on their website (firehero.org), YouTube channel, and Facebook page.
Even if you can't make it, there are ways to pay tribute to this year's honored firefighters.
Light the Night for Fallen Firefighters (April 27 - May 4: Light your homes, businesses, landmarks or fire departments with red lights.
Bells Across America (May 3-4): Sign up to ring bells across the country.
Sound the Sirens (May 4): At noon, many fire stations will sound their sirens in honor of fallen firefighters.
Sign the Remembrance Banner: You can pay tribute to a specific firefighter or share a story.
Four of the five honored Florida firefighters died from cancer or complications from it.
Firefighters put themselves at risk from more things than raging flames. Multiple studies have shown increased risks for cancer due to the smoke and hazardous chemicals firefighters and EMT personnel are exposed to in the line of duty.
When houses burn, carcinogens are released from the many synthetic and plastic materials in the home that can be inhaled or absorbed into the skin. Older homes may still have asbestos insulation, and diesel exhaust can be a factor.
According to research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), firefighters have a 9% higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population. Cancer was responsible for 70% of the line-of-duty deaths for career firefighters in 2016, the Firefighter Cancer Support Network said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Fallen Firefighters Memorial to honor 5 Florida men who died in 2024
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
200 Marines head to downtown LA, in the Corps' most politically fraught mission
200 Marines headed to a downtown LA federal building Thursday night. California Gov. Gavin Newsom objected to the deployment ordered by the defense secretary. Marines' training includes embassy protection, but civilian unrest response training is rare. A portion of the 700 Marines deployed to Los Angeles to support federal law enforcement were routed downtown Thursday night to guard a federal building. The development marks the first time Marines will be working in the city, just days after the secretary of defense tasked the Marines to deploy despite objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Starting today, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines will focus on the protection of federal property and personnel," said Task Force-51 mission commander Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman on Friday during a media roundtable with reporters. The California National Guard soldiers who have been guarding the Wilshire Federal Building in downtown LA will transfer that responsibility to 200 Marines, allowing the Guard to provide "protection to federal law enforcement officers as they conduct their law enforcement functions," elsewhere in the area, Sherman said. Sherman declined to speculate if the remaining 500 Marines might soon be sent to other parts of LA. While Marines are known to "improve, adapt, and overcome" in the face of adversity, some say these combat troops are ill-prepared for a politically fraught mission: Countering those protesting the Trump administration's immigration crackdown after only a few days of non-lethal and crowd control training. Sherman pointed to another mission the Marines fill, guarding embassies overseas, as evidence of preparedness for the LA mission. "They are certainly trained on how to defend a federal building. And that's the missions that we're really focused on them to do, and that's what they will be doing here. They've already started with the Wilshire building today, and we will progress from there," he said. But this discounts the amount of special training that goes into both responding to unrest and protecting an embassy. Embassy protection is not part of widespread training for Marines — rather, it's a three-year special duty assignment to be filled by Marines who've attended schooling for the assignment, said Joe Plenzer, a retired Marine infantry officer and veteran of 2/7. An infantry unit such as 2/7 is trained in the job's most essential task— locating, closing with, and destroying the enemy by fire and maneuver, Plenzer said, adding that he was perplexed by how the unit's mission in LA, and proximity to American civilians, squares with this. Law enforcement practices, by contrast, emphasize de-escalation and using minimal force if necessary. Such units often deploy on Marine Expeditionary Units, groups of ships that float around the world acting as a deterrent to bad actors and a crisis response force, requiring months of predeployment training, Plenzer said. And "Seventh Marines is kind of like the Marine Corps' break-glass-in-case-of-war unit," Plenzer said. The unit's home base, Twentynine Palms, California, is desolate and remote, affording Marines ample opportunity to train with weapons and master their craft. "We never got crowd control training," Plenzer said. "We were always on the range shooting targets, calling in artillery, mortars, and aviation fires, and hiking with heavy packs through the desert over mountain ranges." Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
13-06-2025
- Business Insider
200 Marines head to downtown LA, in the Corps' most politically fraught mission
A portion of the 700 Marines deployed to Los Angeles to support federal law enforcement were routed downtown Thursday night to guard a federal building. The development marks the first time Marines will be working in the city, just days after the secretary of defense tasked the Marines to deploy despite objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Starting today, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines will focus on the protection of federal property and personnel," said Task Force-51 mission commander Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman on Friday during a media roundtable with reporters. The California National Guard soldiers who have been guarding the Wilshire Federal Building in downtown LA will transfer that responsibility to 200 Marines, allowing the Guard to provide "protection to federal law enforcement officers as they conduct their law enforcement functions," elsewhere in the area, Sherman said. Sherman declined to speculate if the remaining 500 Marines might soon be sent to other parts of LA. While Marines are known to " improve, adapt, and overcome" in the face of adversity, some say these combat troops are ill-prepared for a politically fraught mission: Countering those protesting the Trump administration's immigration crackdown after only a few days of non-lethal and crowd control training. Sherman pointed to another mission the Marines fill, guarding embassies overseas, as evidence of preparedness for the LA mission. "They are certainly trained on how to defend a federal building. And that's the missions that we're really focused on them to do, and that's what they will be doing here. They've already started with the Wilshire building today, and we will progress from there," he said. But this discounts the amount of special training that goes into both responding to unrest and protecting an embassy. Embassy protection is not part of widespread training for Marines — rather, it's a three-year special duty assignment to be filled by Marines who've attended schooling for the assignment, said Joe Plenzer, a retired Marine infantry officer and veteran of 2/7. An infantry unit such as 2/7 is trained in the job's most essential task— locating, closing with, and destroying the enemy by fire and maneuver, Plenzer said, adding that he was perplexed by how the unit's mission in LA, and proximity to American civilians, squares with this. Law enforcement practices, by contrast, emphasize de-escalation and using minimal force if necessary. Such units often deploy on Marine Expeditionary Units, groups of ships that float around the world acting as a deterrent to bad actors and a crisis response force, requiring months of predeployment training, Plenzer said. And "Seventh Marines is kind of like the Marine Corps' break-glass-in-case-of-war unit," Plenzer said. The unit's home base, Twentynine Palms, California, is desolate and remote, affording Marines ample opportunity to train with weapons and master their craft. "We never got crowd control training," Plenzer said. "We were always on the range shooting targets, calling in artillery, mortars, and aviation fires, and hiking with heavy packs through the desert over mountain ranges."
New York Post
01-06-2025
- New York Post
Democrats made themselves toxic — now they're addicted to their own poison
A few Democratic officeholders, activists and pundits are finally coming to their senses that their brand is toxic to a majority of the American people. The Biden administration killed what was left of it in a number of ways. First, it serially lied to Americans about the cognitive decline and cancerous condition of President Joe Biden, both while in and after office. Advertisement Only when caught did the complicit media 'fess up that the Biden inner circle serially misled the American people about Biden's inability to fulfill the duties of the presidency. Second, left-wing politicos used Biden as a waxen effigy. His job was to pose as a 'moderate' cover to push through the most radical and unpopular agenda in the last half-century. Advertisement Only that way could 'Old Joe Biden from Scranton' and his backroom handlers ram down the throat of the American people unpopular policies that nearly wrecked the country. Third, without either a functional president or viable initiatives, the new hard-left Democrats sought to brand Donald Trump as 'Hitler' and half the country who supported him as 'fascists.' For nearly nine years, the Democrats launched one failed hoax after another on the American people: 'Russian collusion,' 'laptop disinformation,' and the lying so-called '51 intelligence authorities.' They proved quite willing to undermine the rule of law by manipulating the court system in efforts to destroy their bogeyman, Trump. Advertisement The people are finally tired of all the potty-mouthed Democrat videos, the congressional stunts and meltdowns, the pampered rich kids rioting on elite campuses, the knee-jerk obsessions with racial slurs, the firebombing of Tesla dealerships, the romanticization of left-wing political murderers — and always the adolescent tantrums over Trump. The Democrats had mostly given up on democracy some 13 years ago. That was the last time they transparently and democratically nominated Barack Obama a second time as their presidential candidate. Ever since, their nominations have been rigged. In 2020, party insiders — terrified of the left-wing crazy primary field — forced out all the leading contenders. Advertisement Then they coronated the debilitated but still supposedly useful moderate Biden as their COVID-era candidate. Biden bragged that he would pick his vice president on the basis of race and gender. What followed was the most bizarre campaign in history. Biden stayed put in his basement and outsourced his candidacy to the partisan media. Next, in 2024, they forced the now no longer useful Biden off the ticket, nullifying his 14 million primary voters. Then, without a vote, they rammed in inept Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee. As a failed candidate in 2020, she had never won a single delegate. Some in the party now concede it must roust out its radicals. But Democrats will not. AOC and her Squad, the unhinged Jasmine Crockets of the party, and the ossified socialist Bernie Bros would demonize any Democrat who offered a sane reboot. Advertisement A few fossils in the party may think they know how to save it. But they are terrified that the medicine would be considered far worse than the illness that prompted it. Would Democrats consider embracing measured and legal-only immigration? No — the crazy base would scream 'xenophobe!' A return to meritocracy and the Martin Luther King notion of race as incidental, not essential, to who we are? Advertisement That would be called 'racist.' Maybe reforms to fix failed schools with vouchers, school choice and charter schools? Again, 'racist!' How about developing gas and oil reserves and nuclear power to lower energy costs for the struggling middle class? Advertisement That would be condemned as 'destroying the planet.' Restore police forces, end critical race and legal theory, and deter criminals with tough sentencing? How about ceasing the whiny fixations with 'white privilege' and 'white rage?' Or quit seeing a 'white supremacist' under every bed? Advertisement Again and again, 'racist!' The left created DEI — the use of race to adjudicate every political issue. And like any addictive, toxic drug, they now can neither survive with DEI — nor without it. Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness.
