Firefighters killed on duty honored
Fire commissioner Raymond Orozco and 11th Ward alderman Jim Balcer laid a wreath at the Stockyards Firefighter Memorial.
The memorial honors 21 victims who died in the nation's worst loss of firefighters until the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City.
Exactly 97 years ago, on December 22, 1910, firefighters responded to a huge blaze in the stockyards. Suddenly, a seven-story warehouse collapsed, killing the 21 firefighters.
"We take the time-- especially around the Christmas season-- because these indivisuals were never able to go home for Christmas. And we just come together just to remember the sacrifice that the men and women of the Chicago Fire Department-- and the Chicago Police Department-- are making out on the streets of this city every day," said Chicago Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco.
Commissioner Orozvco said 566 members of the Chicago Fire Department have died in the line of duty. The Stockyards fire included James hHoran, one of Orozco's predecessors as fire commissioner.
