Beneath a blistering sky, roughly 200 people attended the 19th annual Kentucky Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service at Juniper Hill Park.
Some stood in the shade while others sat on chairs and bleachers in front of the granite obelisk memorial topped by a stainless steel Maltese cross, the national symbol of firefighters. Below the memorial, wreaths of flowers lined the wall etched with names of fallen Kentucky firefighters.
“We recognize firefighters who have been killed in the line of duty, and since 2017, we do cancer-related deaths,” said Bruce Roberts, division director of the Kentucky Fire Commission and master of ceremonies for the event.
“We’ve got probably 200 names on the wall. They go back all the way to the early 1900s, the ones that we can find.”