5 Wisconsin firefighters who died in the line of duty will be honored during Saturday ceremony in Wisconsin Rapids

Karen Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
Updated ·3 min read

WISCONSIN RAPIDS − Firefighters from across the state will come to the Wisconsin State Firefighters and EMS Memorial Saturday to pay tribute to five firefighters who died in the line of duty last year.

The 19th annual Final Alarm and Roll Call Ceremony will take place at 3:33 p.m. Saturday at the memorial in Ben Hansen Park, 2031 Second Ave. S. in Wisconsin Rapids. After the ceremony, at 7 p.m., firefighters will participate in the Final Alarm Procession. They will drive emergency equipment with lights on and sirens off through Wisconsin Rapids streets.

The starting time of 3:33 p.m. is a recognition of a Wisconsin firefighter tradition of ringing a bell in three sets of three, pausing between each set, to announce the end of a shift, Pittsville Fire Chief Jerry Minor said. The 3:33 start time symbolizes the end of a shift and the firefighter going home, Minor said.

The five men firefighters will honor Saturday are:

  • Firefighter James Ludlum, 69, and Capt. Brian Busch, 43, both of the Mineral Point Fire Department, died Jan. 6, 2022. They were responding to a crash on U.S. 151 early in the morning of Jan. 6. The fire apparatus they were using was attempting to use an emergency crossover when a semi hit it, according to the U.S. Fire Administration website. The fire truck sustained major damage and caught fire. Both men died at the scene.

  • Firefighter Raymond Samson, 55, of the Dale Fire and Rescue Department, died Jan. 22, 2022, following a long fight with COVID-19, according to his obituary. He was a 16-year veteran of the fire department.

  • Assistant Fire Chief Robert A. Stevens, 66, of the Fremont-Wolf River Fire Department, died Jan. 27, 2022, from COVID-19, according to a story in the Appleton Post-Crescent. He was a 35-year veteran of the department.

  • Firefighter Riley Daniel Ray Huiras, 20, of the Grand Rapids Fire Department, died Aug. 3, 2022, from a brain aneurysm. On the evening of July 30, 2022, he responded to a garage fire that spread to two homes and a second garage in Nekoosa, according to a Daily Tribune article. He was on his way back from the fire when a call came in for a crash in Grand Rapids. Huiras and another young member of the department hopped off one emergency vehicle and directly onto another one to go to the crash scene. Sometime between 2 and 6 a.m. July 31 he suffered a brain aneurysm and died on Aug. 3.

The memorial's board of directors considers cancer, heart attacks and COVID-19 all duty-related injuries.

The names of seven firefighters who died from COVID-19 were added to the memorial in 2022 and three who died from COVID-19 were added in 2021.

James Luty, president of the Wisconsin Firefighter and EMS Memorial board invites Wisconsin Rapids-area residents to line the route of the procession. The procession will leave the memorial at 7 p.m., then take Second and Third avenues to West Jackson Street, go across the Jackson Street Bridge, turn left on First Street and through the traffic circle onto Baker Street. The procession then will turn right onto 16th Street, turn right on East Grand Avenue, cross the Grand Avenue Bridge and turn onto first Avenue South before heading back to the memorial on Third and Second avenues.

Contact Karen Madden at (715) 345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33

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This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: 5 Wisconsin firefighters who died in the line of duty will be honored