Memorial to Honor Long Beach Firefighters Killed on Duty

Ethel Ferguson wants her grandchildren to remember how their great-great-grandfather--Long Beach’s first fire chief--was killed on duty 81 years ago today.

Responding to a false alarm at what is now Long Beach Boulevard and Broadway in downtown Long Beach, Chief Joseph E. Shewsbury’s new fire engine collided with a department chemical truck. The whole town grieved the young department’s first fatality, she said.

“Everybody in Long Beach attended the service,” said Ferguson, 74. “All the businesses shut down and it was a very special time.”

Today, Shewsbury’s name will be one of 13 read during a memorial service honoring the somber list of firefighters killed on duty over the department’s 100-year history.

Ferguson and her family plan to join dozens of descendants of firefighters who died on duty--in addition to dignitaries and members of the current force--at the 11:30 a.m. service under a memorial statue outside City Hall.

The service will include a 21-gun salute by the Long Beach Fire Department, a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” and taps played by a Marine Corps bugler.

The memorial is part of the department’s centennial anniversary, and will feature some of the department’s original equipment, including a 1907 Amskeag “822” Steamer pump that department officials had certified and cranked up during a celebration earlier this year.

Chief Harold Omel said that there actually have been 17 firefighters who have died while working for the department, most recently in 1974. But four of the deaths were long ago and could not be properly documented, he said.

“It’s a dangerous job. That’s the bottom line,” Omel said. He added that across the United States, 100 firefighters die in the line of duty each year, while another 100,000 are injured.

The Long Beach department was started in 1897 when 28 men volunteered, equipping themselves with a hand-drawn truck, axes and leather buckets.