Seven months after her husband, city firefighter Lt. James Bethea, died in the aftermath of a northeast Baltimore rowhouse fire, Brenda Pridgen still has to gird herself to talk about her family's loss. But on Sunday as she was surrounded by hundreds of his fellow firefighters and emergency personnel during an Annapolis commemoration, she found some comfort.
Not closure, she emphasized; the pain is still too fresh for that. But comfort.
"It lets me know that he's not forgotten, and that's very important to our family — that his work, his life, is not forgotten," Pridgen said during the opening moments of the Maryland Fire-Rescue Services Memorial Program. The annual ceremony, now in its 10th year, honors firefighters and rescue personnel who have died in the line of duty. Five names, including Bethea's, were added to the role of honor at the Annapolis memorial, located just north of the Goldstein Treasury Building on Calvert Street.
Bethea was with the city Fire Department for more than 40 years. He was working as a fire safety officer in November 2014, charged with ensuring that proper safety procedures were followed, when he entered a rowhouse in the 700 block of E. North Ave., adjacent to a home that had caught fire. He apparently fell through a floor in the empty rowhouse and died of smoke inhalation. He was in the home for hours before an off-duty firefighter noticed his car outside the home and called for help.
"This is totally about my husband, and the 41 years he gave to the city of Baltimore." his wife said, surrounded by his fellow firefighters. "It's been a little overwhelming, quite frankly."
Scores of firefighters and rescue personnel from throughout the state gathered in Annapolis for the 2 p.m. ceremony, held under a huge Maryland flag suspended between two ladder trucks. More than a dozen firefighting and rescue vehicles were parked on streets surrounding the memorial, representing companies in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City and County, as well as Frederick, Annapolis, Wheaton, Bel Air, Branchville and several other towns.
A crowd of about 200 gathered to watch the ceremony; about a third stood up to identify themselves as families of those being honored, or of those who had been honored in previous ceremonies. As speaker after speaker reminded them, one of the main thoughts behind the ceremony was to offer support to families left behind.
"We will never leave you — not ever," promised keynote speaker Matthew Tobia, an official with the Loudoun County, Va., Fire and Rescue Department and a former battalion chief in Anne Arundel County. "These are our opportunities to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to never forget."
"A line-of-duty death can be overwhelming," said speaker Shelly Brezicki. But, she said, given time, "you will learn to not count the seconds or minutes since they left."
Brezicki's brother, Gene Kirchner, a firefighter with the Reisterstown volunteer company, was 25 when he died of injuries suffered while searching for victims of a house fire in April 2013.
Family members of those honored, though clearly emotional, said they appreciated the support and camaraderie.
It's heartening "to know that there is that much care and compassion," said Carol Fogle, whose husband of 30 years, firefighter Robert W. Fogle III, died of a heart attack in May 2014 during exercises at Baltimore County's Sparrows Point training facility.
"It's a terrible way to have that honor," Carol Fogle said, "but it is nice that the men and women who have given their ultimate sacrifice are remembered.
In addition to Bethea and Fogle, those honored included Frederick County firefighter Kevin Wayne Jenkins, who died in April 2013 of illnesses related to his service; Mitchell Duane Dobbins, president of Hagerstown's Western Enterprise Fire Company 4, who died in March 2014 of injuries sustained in a traffic accident while on his way to the station; and paramedic Erik Steciak, a volunteer captain at Howard County's West Friendship Volunteer Fire Department who was working as a paramedic for the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company last January when he was killed while at an accident scene.
"Having the other families around is just a gift," said Jennifer Steciak, Erik Steciak's mother. "It doesn't make it any easier, but it does make it less painful."
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