When Alexander Bingham graduated from the Houston firefighter training academy in 2016, one of his classmates was missing.
Steven Whitfield, a cadet in Bingham's class, had perished in a training accident in March 2016 and would not graduate alongside those who had become his brothers.
Bingham and his classmates still mourn Whitfield's death, but on Saturday, Bingham said, he felt uplifted by the celebration honoring Whitfield and 189 other firefighters during this year's Fallen Fire Fighter's Memorial ceremony in Memorial Park. "It means a whole lot to our class, not just me, to be here when they put his name on the wall," Bingham said.