By Kurt Bresswein
The Express-Times
EASTON, Pa. — More of a family than mere coworkers, City of Easton employees gathered Monday in Centre Square for a flag-lowering in honor of a fallen firefighter.
The Easton flag will remain at half-staff for about a month — one day for each of Tyler Weidner’s 33 years during his too-brief life, Mayor Sal Panto Jr said.
“The city expresses its deepest condolences, obviously to the family,” Panto said. “But his family is more than his immediate family — his city family, as you can see by the people who are here.”
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Weidner died during the early morning hours Thursday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, according to Lehigh County Coroner Daniel Buglio. The cause and manner of death were pending further tests following an autopsy.
Easton Fire Department Capt. Terrance Hand lowered the flag as his and Weidner’s fellow firefighters saluted, with members of the Easton Police Department and other city employees on hand for the morning ceremony under a cloudless blue sky.
Hand said he’s known the Weidner family for 25 years — Tyler joined the fire service as did his father, Kevin Weidner, an Easton firefighter, and grandfather, the late Willis L. Weidner Jr, who was fire chief in Wilson Borough.
Tyler Weidner was a 2010 alumnus of Easton Area High School, where he was a member of the Red Rovers’ 2009 District 11 Championship football team, according to his obituary. He also excelled at wrestling and tennis, and earned his bachelor’s degree from The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, in 2014 before joining the Easton Fire Department in July 2021.
Fire Chief Henry Hennings posted to Facebook that Weidner’s “drive and never-quit spirit made him a vital member of the First Platoon, where he responded to numerous emergencies during his years of active service to the department.” Weidner had recently used CPR to save a patient in cardiac arrest, according to the chief.
“Tyler’s final rescue was his donation of his two kidneys to save the lives of two others,” Hennings wrote.
Weidner leaves behind survivors that include his fiancée and their son, his parents, siblings and maternal grandparents.
City Councilman Frank Pintabone on Monday acknowledged the outpouring across social media of sympathy for the family’s loss.
“To see the community really reach out and share their condolences and their support is just really heart-moving,” he said Monday. “It’s what the city does. Like, that’s what we do. You expect it from the city. We’ll come together and lift each other up in the times of need. And unfortunately, we have one of those times.”
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