Mourners Remember 4 Corona Firefighters Killed in Plane Crash

In a moving ceremony that began with anguished personal memories and ended with the haunting wail of a lone bagpipe, four young Corona firefighters were laid to rest Wednesday, a week and a day after they died in a fiery plane crash.

More than 2,000 grieving family members, friends and firefighters from across Southern California gathered at Crossroads Christian Church for the funeral of John Jefferies III, 25, of Santa Ana; Michael Chantry, 36, of San Clemente; Donald Butts, 28, of Irvine; and Daniel Alleman, 27, of Perris.

Many firefighters and their wives sobbed as a tape was played of Chantry’s 2-year-old daughter, Cortni, singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” her ABCs and the Barney “Happy Family” song, then in a lilting voice saying, “I miss you, Daddo. . . . I love you.”

But there were moments of laughter, too, as wives and best friends recalled their fondest memories of Chantry, known as the “golden boy;” Jefferies the “fun hog;” Alleman, the self-styled cowboy; and Butts, a creative skinflint.

Close friends and Corona firefighters all, the four died when their plane broadsided a fog-shrouded slope in the Chino Hills. They were remembered with all the pomp and circumstance of a service for fallen comrades.

Bagpiper John Keys of the Los Angeles City Fire Department was there, his pipes wailing across the silent congregation.

Personal tributes to the four men were delivered by their wives, siblings, best friends and colleagues.

“I never thought the time would come, my love, when I’d have to tell my love for you to the whole world, as you lay in front of me,” Alleman’s widow, Jackie, said, weeping.

Whenever someone asked Jefferies, a third-generation firefighter, what he did for a living, “he would puff up with pride like a peacock and say, ‘I am a firefighter-paramedic for the city of Corona,’ ” recalled his pastor, the Rev. Eric Meneese of Santa Ana.

Dave Kearly said of best friend Butts, “We traveled many years and many miles together . . . in your boat on the ocean, kayaking, camping, and . . . the sides of roads and freeways looking for some piece of trash. . . . You could take anything and make it bigger and better.”

Said Corona Fire Chief Mike Warren, his voice cracking, “These men were local heroes.”

A procession of fire and rescue equipment a quarter mile long stretched down the street in front of the church, and an arch formed by two firefighting ladders extended skyward.

As hundreds of firefighters and police snapped a salute, the flags on each casket were removed, folded and formally, gently placed in the hands of the widows.