The Superior Fire Department joined several Minnesota fire departments and law enforcement agencies Tuesday to pay tribute to two Michigan firefighters killed in a crash Saturday in Blaine, Minn. James Shelifoe, 23, and Alan Swartz, 25, of Baraga, Mich., were among firefighters headed to Utah to fight a wildfire when they were killed Saturday afternoon.
Superior firefighters lined the route along Belknap Street, hanging an American flag from fire truck ladders erected over Belknap Street. They saluted as the funeral process, which included several departments from Minnesota, made its way down Belknap to U.S. Highways 2/53 for the journey east to Michigan.
Shelifoe and Swartz were members of the crew from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, from the Baraga-based Beartown Firefighters managed by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. They were en route to Utah when the driver, Michael A. Johnson, 28, of Baraga lost control of the fire truck just after 3 p.m. Saturday.