Each year in October, the Knoxville Fire Department holds its annual Memorial Service Honoring Fallen Firefighters at the KFD's Headquarters Fire Station in downtown Knoxville.
The annual ceremony honors the 24 KFD firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty since 1875 and the retired firefighters who have died since the last memorial service. As part of the ceremony, attended by active and retired firefighters and family and friends of those being honored, a bell is rang once for each of the fallen firefighters.
At the same time, as each fallen firefighter's name is read by Fire Chief Stan Sharp and the bell is tolled, a single red rose is placed into a gold-colored vase bearing the department's insignia.
Mayor Madeline Rogero and Chief Sharp speak at the ceremony and place a wreath at the firefighter's statue in Firefighter Memorial Park in front of the station.
Members of KFD who have died in the line of duty since 1875:
Captain Robert L. "Buddy" Blankenship
Fred Everett Boatman
Chief Sam B. Boyd
John. J. Dunn
J.C. Flenniken
Michael A. Fletcher
Captain Howard O. Gray
Captain William F. Maxey
Captain Tom. F. Heagerty
Henry Clay Lawless
James H. May
Louie A. McCaughan
Captain Henry "Pat" Mitchell
Raymond H. "Shorty" Nash
Captain John O. "Slim" Pickens
William Scott Popejoy, Jr.
William C. Reed
Lloyd C. Scruggs
Captain Worley Sharp
Fred M. "Jack" Sexton
Carl Eugene Smith
George H. Smith
Joe E. Tarwater
Captain Charles E. Youngblood
History of the Ceremony and Memorial:
The Knoxville Fire Department had only been an organized paid department for 19 years when they suffered their first two line of duty deaths (LODD) in 1904. The citizens thought it fitting to perpetuate in stone the names of the deceased men that perished protecting the property of their fellow neighbors. Every October during fire prevention week the names of Knoxville's bravest who answered their last alarm, along with retired firefighters that have passed in the last year will be read by the Chief of the department. Since the memorial's inception there have been 24 LODD names etched in the stone.