The federal government may have shut down, but it won’t stop the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s annual ceremony to honor 81 firefighters who died in the line of duty this year.
“If you have plans to attend these ceremonies, do not change them,” Dennis Compton, chairman of the NFFF board of directors, said in a press release. “We will be honoring these firefighters and their families this weekend in Emmitsburg (Md.) as we have done for 32 years.”
Volunteer firefighters from Maryland’s Anne Arudel, Frederick and Howard counties have moved the equipment and furniture into backup buildings owned by Mount St. Mary’s University and the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Daughters of Charity. The ceremony was to be held at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md., which is now closed because of the government shutdown.
The candlelight vigil on Saturday, Oct. 5 and the memorial service on Sunday, Oct. 6 will go on as planned. The Daughters of Charity also provided space for the Memorial Weekend Command Post.
The Daughter’s Basilica served as the former site of the ceremony and has always remained an alternative location, but organizers aren’t giving up on hosting the event at the home of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
“If it is at all possible, our hope is to still have the ceremonies on the grounds of the memorial,” Compton said. “This is a fluid situation and we have plans in place for different scenarios.”
About 5,000 people from across the country are expected to attend, which includes hundreds of survivors.
The priority, Compton said, is to make sure the survivors receive the “support, resources and respect they deserve,” and ensure the Memorial Weekend continues regardless of what happened on Capitol Hill.
“We felt it was better,” he said, “to prepare in advance for the potential shutdown than to wait for a decision from Congress.”