Firefighters to ‘pay homage’ to Bristol’s Bravest

Firefighters Memorial Sunday is scheduled for June 11

EastBayRI.com ·

A religious service, a parade and a ceremony in Firefighter’s Memorial Park highlight the 62nd annual Firefighters Memorial Sunday this weekend.

Religious services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, June 11, at St. Mary’s Parish on Wood Street, and will be led by Rev. Barry J. Gamache.

At 1 p.m. a parade will leave from Church and High streets and march north on High Street to Franklin Street, west on Franklin to Hope Street, south on Hope to State Street, west on State to Thames Street, and then south on Thames to Firefighters’ Memorial Park. The parade will be led by General Chairwoman Jane E. Dwyer, who has 27 years of service in the Dreadnaught Hook Ladder and Co., No., 1, and has the distinction of being the town’s first female firefighter as well as a member of the first class challenge Firefighter 1 and 2 exams.

Following the parade, a ceremony will be held in Firefighters’ Memorial Park on Thames Street. The speaker of the day will be Diane Davis. A life-long Bristolian, she retired from the town of Bristol as the director of human services. She is a life member of the Fourth of July Committee and was the recipient of the 2012 Hattie Brown Award for community service.

The Mystic Highland Bagpipe Band will participate in the ceremony, march in the parade, and will perform during the ceremonies.

“It is a time of reflection to pay homage to those who came before us and to look back on the department,” Fire Chief Michael DeMello said.

The event is organized by the Fireman’s Memorial and Welfare Committee, which was organized in 1955 to provide benefits for families of active and life members in time of injury, death and in cases of hardship.

Firefighters Memorial Sunday