By John Scheibe
Ventura County Star (California)

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — After years of planning and fundraising, construction has started on a memorial to Ventura County's fallen firefighters, complete with the names of the dead chiseled on a granite base.

The memorial, at the County Government Center in Ventura, is scheduled to be dedicated in September.

"This is a recognition for those who ended up paying the ultimate price," Bryan Vanden Bossche, a battalion chief with the Ventura County Fire Department, said Monday.

In all, 36 local firefighters have died. The list stretches back to 1944, when Ventura County Fire Chief Lucius Orton died of a heart attack. Like Orton, about half of the firefighters died from work-related diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Many others died in accidents while on duty.

Most of the dead worked for the Ventura County Fire Department.

"I probably knew at least half of them," Vanden Bossche, a 22-year veteran, said of the 19 firefighters from his department who have died since Orton. An additional eight were from the U.S. Forest Service. Three were from the Federal Fire Ventura County agency based at Point Mugu, and three were from the city of Ventura Fire Department. Two worked for the Los Angeles County Fire Department but died from injuries suffered while fighting fires in Ventura County, Bossche said.

To qualify for the memorial, a firefighter must have either died fighting a fire in Ventura County or worked for an agency based here, he said.

The memorial will include a 7-foot-tall statue of a firefighter holding a child. The 750-pound, cast-bronze statue will be anchored to the ground with 2-inch-diameter studs, said Jed Hendrickson, owner of Santa Barbara Memorial.

Hendrickson's firm arranged to have a Minnesota sculptor, Joseph Miller, make the statue.

Hendrickson said Miller started with a clay model. "It took about nine months from start to finish" Hendrickson said. The statue was shipped to Santa Barbara in February, he said.

The entire memorial, including the statue, cost about $250,000.

Marc Vertin, a Ventura businessman and past president of the Rotary Club of Ventura, helped raise some $300,000 toward the project since getting involved 3 1/2 years ago.

The county Board of Supervisors in 2004 approved the Government Center site for it, and construction finally began last week.

"Donations are still coming in," Vertin said. Any extra money could be used for upkeep of the memorial, he said.

Those making contributions of $500 or more will have their names displayed at the memorial. "The response from the community has been overwhelming," Vertin said.

The memorial is being built near a monument honoring local law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty.

The firefighter memorial will be dedicated during a ceremony at 10 a.m. Sept. 27.

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