100 showed at New Tripoli funeral from Maryland firefighter group

Dec. 20—Zachary T. A. Paris was a firefighter with the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services in Maryland for only two months, but he had already earned the respect of colleagues at the Green Valley fire station.

With a name like Paris, in no time at all he was known as "Frenchie" around the firehouse.

"Zach was one of those people who stood out; he had an old soul," said Sarah Campbell, the division's public information officer. "He was super committed to his job, and he gave his everything."

Paris and fellow firefighter Marvin L. Gruber died after being trapped inside a burning house on Dec. 7 at 1121 Clamtown Road, West Penn Twp.

They were members of Community Fire Company in New Tripoli. Funeral services were held for both firefighters Saturday at Northwestern Lehigh Middle School.

Campbell played a key role in organizing the service, and about 100 Frederick County uniformed firefighters attended.

The daylong event, which included public and private viewings, concluded with a symbolic bell ringing ceremony that signifies the end of a firefighter's shift.

Frederick County's honor guard performed a military-style folding of the American flags that covered the fallen firefighters' caskets and, on bended knees, two members of the honor guard presented the triangular flags to family members before 900 people in the school's auditorium.

The New Tripoli service was particularly emotional for Frederick County firefighters, who had lost one of their own earlier this year. Battalion Chief Joshua Laird, 46, perished while fighting a fire in April.

Having experienced loss only eight months earlier, Frederick County firefighters understood what the families of the New Tripoli firefighters were going through.

"Right now, everybody's focused on the families," Campbell said. "We need to give the families the remembrance they deserve. Zach and Marvin need to be remembered and displayed the way they should be."

Their flag-draped caskets were guarded by uniformed firefighters, one at each end, with photos of them in uniform behind each one. "Last watch, Dec. 7, 2022" was printed on floral emblems of the Community Fire Company.

Fire Chief Gary Kuntz called for a moment of silence for the "fallen heroes," and the entire uniformed force of Community Fire Company force stood in respect.

The National Fallen Firefighters Pipes and Drum Corps, 35 pipers strong, played the soulful anthem "Amazing Grace."

The combined corps was composed of representatives of 14 firefighter pipe bands on the East Coast, ranging from Baltimore to Kutztown, drum major Ivan Browning said.

Charles J. McGarvey, state fire commissioner, said the sense of loss experienced by families and fellow firefighters in New Tripoli was all too familiar. As fire chief in Lower Merion Twp., he had lost two firefighters, he said.

During a meeting with New Tripoli firefighters, McGarvey said he knew what they were going through.

"I said to them, it is not easy to lose a brother, yet to lose two," he said. "But you will get through it, and you need to remember all the good that Chief Paris and Gruber did for you."

He urged them to seek counseling, if necessary.

"I still see the hurt in your faces, and I know your hearts are broken," he said, "but your spirits must remain strong."

Arriving by the bus load, the line of uniformed firefighters stretched for a block along the sidewalk in front of the school.

Kuntz led New Tripoli firefighters, who had huddled around their apparatus beneath a ballooning American flag, into the auditorium.

In a gymnasium where the service was live-streamed, Matt Valyou sat in silence with his 13-year-old son, Nicholas. They had driven more than four hours from Rensselaer, a college town across the Hudson River from Albany, New York.

Valyou, whose father was a fire chief, remembered firefighters dying in an explosion. He'd also attended anniversaries marking the death of New York City firefighters in the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Anytime a firefighter dies in the line of duty, it's tragic," Valyou said. "We live with danger every time we go out, but we still go because that's what we do."

Contact the writer: rdevlin@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6007