Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty
On Sunday, Oct. 4th, President Obama honored over 80 fallen Firefighters in Emmitsburg, Maryland, adding the fallen to a bronze plaque at the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
Sunday, three Texas fallen Firefighters were added to the roll call…
We have Houston’s Daniel David Groover. Groover was 47 years old when he died from smoke inhalation, this was after he collapsed during a house fire in 2014.
His wife wrote:
Daniel D. Groover from Engine 104 joined the Houston Fire Department after returning home from serving five years in the U.S. Army. He was a second generation firefighter; his father, CaptainGary S. Groover (retired), was a Houston firefighter for over 30 years. As an only child, Danny wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and joined the Houston Fire Department in 1993.
While in the military, Danny was a medic and worked in the emergency room in Germany, so it was easy for him to volunteer to become a paramedic for the Houston Fire Department. He served as a firefighter/paramedic for 17 years, and in 2013 he opted to go back to firefighting. Danny and his fellow firefighters were fighting a two-story house fire when he lost his life on July 9, 2014.
Danny was a wonderful, quiet, loving, caring man and will be missed b y so many.
He impacted so many people in his short life.
You are gone, but you will never be forgotten.
Will all my love,
Ellie Groover,
Widow of Daniel D. Groove
The other two fallen Texas firefighters was a Damon Volunteer Fire Chief Hugh Ferguson. Ferguson was 52 years old when he died of smoke inhalation in 2014. Ferguson collapsed at a house fire scene.
The last was a Dallas Fire Captain Scott Tanksley.
Tanksley was 40 years old when he was struck and killed by a passing vehicle at a crash scene. It was February 10, 2014, he was worked the accident scene and was then hit by a car that knocked him over the icy overpass.
Tanksley worked with the Dallas fire-rescue for 14 years.
Some of the other honored firefighters were from other states such as Baltimore. One wife said, “My husband would have loved this, Brenda Pridgen said. Pridgen’s husband was a Baltimore County firefighter, Robert W. Fogle III, he was 58 years old when he died on the job.
“He was all about the fire service. He lived the fire service, so this would have been a momentous day for him,” Pridgen said.
President Obama spoke for 12 minutes saying, “Today we salute them and remember them as the heroes that they were.”
Via:firehero.org
