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In memory of heroes
We don’t usually think of our local fire and rescue volunteers as heroes.
But last week, in neighboring Fauquier County, two members of the Catlett Volunteer Fire Department lost their lives when their fire truck was struck by an Amtrak passenger train. The firefighters were on their way to a fire, and apparently were not aware of the approaching train when they entered the railroad crossing.
Mark Miller, 24, and Matthew Smith, 22, lost their lives in the service of their fellow men. They had left their homes and families, and perhaps their dinner table, to respond to a call for help. They certainly had no idea that they would not return home safely that evening.
That is the danger inherent in the business of firefighting and rescue work. Much of the time it is routine and uneventful. But a disaster like the accident in Catlett last week causes all of us — whether we are volunteers or their families, neighbors and friends — to remember that the threat of iry ury and death hovers ever present, like a shadow, near those in the fire and rescue services.
We know that the eulogies, tributes and the outpouring of support are small comforts to the families of firefighters Miller and Smith. Their fellow volunteers, as well, share the pain of the loss of two good and kind young men. They were family.
Their pain and loss can never fully be repaid. But those two young men died in the service of their fellow men. The Bible teaches that there is no greater love, than to lay down your life in the service of your fellow men.
They are heroes — in the truest sense of the word.
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