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LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER
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Honor procession is a tribute to fallen New Tripoli firefighters

Published December 13. 2022 02:58PM
by JIM MARSH Special to The Press

The fire service is a universal brotherhood. When a first responder loses their life in service to their community, it is a loss to all of their comrades in the service.

That truism was evident last week as hundreds of firefighters and scores of emergency vehicles lined the route of two hearses as they traveled Route 309, Route 100, Tilghman Street and Parkway Road from the fire station of Community Fire Company New Tripoli to the Lehigh County Coroner’s facility in the Lehigh County Joint Operations Center, along Broadway, in South Whitehall Township Dec. 8.

The hearses carried the bodies of two volunteer firefighters who lost their lives at a three-alarm house fire in Schuylkill County Dec. 7.

Along the route, emergency vehicles lined the roadway with emergency lights blinking in silent tribute. As the hearses passed, police, ambulance and fire personnel snapped to attention and saluted the fallen firefighters.

Along the last mile to the operations center, emergency vehicles from three counties were bumper-to-bumper along Tilghman Street and Parkway Road. First responders, in their turnout gear or dress uniforms, saluted as the hearses, accompanied by apparatus from fire stations in northwestern Lehigh County, passed in procession.

As the hearses neared the coroner’s facility, they paused under a flag arch formed by the aerial ladders from the South Whitehall Township Fire Company’s Cetronia Station and the Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company. A siren sounded from the Western Salisbury truck in tribute and crews held their salute until the hearses had passed.

It was a stirring scene, with local citizens and personnel from the Cetronia Ambulance Corps, which is also housed in the facility, were visibly moved.

The New Tripoli volunteer firefighters, Assistant Fire Chief Zachary Paris, 36 and firefighter Marvin Gruber, 59, were in the burning home in West Penn Township, Schuylkill County, searching for possible trapped victims. The home was destroyed and two other firefighters were injured fighting the smoky blaze.

PRESS PHOTOS BY JIM MARSH Hearses carrying the bodies of two fallen firefighters from the Community Fire Company of New Tripoli pause under a flag arch created by Cetronia Fire Company and Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company Thursday evening, Dec. 8., at the Lehigh County Operations Center, along Broadway in South Whitehall Township, the location of the Lehigh Valley coroner's facility.
Fire apparatus from Emmaus Fire Company, left and Eastern Salisbury Fire Department, right, are among scores of units lining the last mile leading to the Lehigh County coroner's office at the Lehigh County Joint Operations Center along Broadway, South Whitehall Township. The fire equipment was part of an honor procession as two hearses carried the bodies of two New Tripoli volunteer firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty Dec. 7 fighting a house fire in Schuylkill County.
Fire apparatus from across Eastern Pennsylvania line Parkway Road, South Whitehall, as they await the arrival of two hearses carrying the bodies of two New Tripoli volunteer firefighters who lost their lives Dec. 7 fighting a Schuylkill County house fire. Scores of police, fire and ambulance units were lined up bumper-to-bumper along Tilghman Street and Parkway Road as personnel stood by to salute as an honor procession brought the bodies of the fallen firefighters the last mile to the Lehigh County Coroner's facility, at the Lehigh County Joint Operations Center along Broadway, South Whitehall Township.
Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company firefighters salute two fallen firefighters from the Community Fire Company of New Tripoli as hearses carrying their bodies arrive at the Lehigh County Coroner's facility along Broadway in South Whitehall Township.