Services set today at firefighters memorial

May 18, 2013 at 5:55 a.m. | Updated May 18, 2013 at 5:55 a.m.

More than 100 American flags were erected on the south side of the Missouri Firefighters Memorial at Kingdom City. A Candlelight Ceremony will be at dusk, or about 9 p.m., Saturday when firemen who died in 2012 will be honored. A statewide memorial service for firemen will be at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the memorial. The names of firemen killed during duty and the names of all deceased Missouri firemen with more than 10 years of service are carved into the marble walls at the memorial.
More than 100 American flags were erected on the south side of the Missouri Firefighters Memorial at Kingdom City. A Candlelight Ceremony will be at dusk, or about 9 p.m., Saturday when firemen who died in 2012 will be honored. A statewide memorial service for firemen will be at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the memorial. The names of firemen killed during duty and the names of all deceased Missouri firemen with more than 10 years of service are carved into the marble walls at the memorial.

KINGDOM CITY, Mo. -- More than 100 American flags have been erected for memorial services this weekend at the Missouri Firefighters Memorial at Kingdom City.

At dusk today, or about 9 p.m., the annual candlelight ceremony will honor Missouri firefighters with more than 10 years of service who died during 2012.

The annual statewide service to honor firefighters who died while fighting fires will start at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the memorial.

Carved in several marble walls at the memorial are the names of firefighters who were fatally injured while fighting fires. The memorial also includes the names of Missouri firefighters who died with more than 10 years of service as firefighters.

Temporary extra flags at the memorial were placed there during May by Callaway County residents who offered flags for donations to a planned statewide Missouri Firefighters Museum next to the Missouri Firefighters Memorial. The memorial is located next to the Heart of Missouri Tourism Center at the northwest corner of the intersection of U.S. 54 and Interstate 70 at Kingdom City.

The temporary Firefighters Field of Flags during May at the memorial was suggested by Ron Baker of Fulton. Baker said the flags were ordered by businesses as well as firefighters and their families from throughout Missouri. "We even had one museum contribution from Illinois to the proposed Missouri Firefighters Museum," Baker said.

Baker said about $2,000 was raised this year in contributions to the proposed Missouri Firefighters Museum.

In September of 2001, a statue of a firefighter kneeling in prayer was waiting on the docks in New York on the way to the Missouri Firefighters Memorial at Kingdom City when terrorists crashed two hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center twin towers in New York.

Missouri firefighters made the Missouri Firefighters Memorial statue available to New York residents mourning the deaths of New Yorkers killed in the terrorist attack.

A duplicate statue was commissioned and later erected by Missouri Firefighters at their statewide memorial in Kingdom City.

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