This page is dedicated to the brave men and women who have answered their final alarm.

Charleston, SC Furniture Store Blaze

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the firefighters who perished in South Carolina.

"Saint Florian. The Patron Saint of Firefighters"

"The St. Florian commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on May 4th, was an officer of the Roman Army, who occupied a high administrative post in Noricum, now part of Austria, and who suffered death for the Faith in the days of Dioletian. His legendary "acts" state that he gave himself up at Lorch to the soldiers of Aquilinus, the governor, when they were rounding up the Christians, and after making a bold confession, he was twice scourged, half-flayed alive, set on fire, and finally thrown into the river Enns with a stone around his neck. His body, recovered and buried by a pious woman, was eventually removed to the Augustinian Abbey of St. Florian, near Linz. It is said to have been at a later date translated to Rome, and Pope Lucius III, in 1138, gave some of the saint's relics to King Casimir of Poland and to the Bishop of Cracow. Since that time, St. Florian has been regarded as a patron of Poland as well as of Linz, Upper Austria and of firefighters. There has been popular devotion to St. Florian in many parts of central Europe, and the tradition as to his martyrdom, not far from the spot where the Enns flows into the Danube, is ancient and reliable. Many miracles of healing are attributed to his intercession and he is invoked as a powerful protector in danger from fire or water."

A Firefighter's Prayer

When I am called to duty, God

Wherever flames may race,

Give me the strength to save some life

Whatever be its age.

Help me embrace a little child

Before it is too late,

Or save some older person

From the horror of that fate.

Enable me to be alert

And hear the weakest shout,

And quickly and efficiently

To put the fire out.

I want to fill my calling

And to give the best in me,

To guard my every neighbor

And protect his property.

And if according to our fate,

I have to lose my life,

Please bless with your protecting hand

My children and my mate.