Firefighters have many rituals, especially at funerals, and the impact and importance to the rest of us is somewhat opaque. We are left standing outside, faces against the glass, wondering.
But it is how they get through doing what they do. They face danger, we generally don't and don't need to understand. Policemen and the military do much the same. Many of the specific rituals may have come in arbitrarily, but no matter. These people go into emotional territory that we largely miss, and they seem to know best how this is to be managed.
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The one that always destroys me is the point in the service when all the fire radio beepers go off, and the dispatcher comes on to say that "Number 328 is out of service. He is going home."
The firefighters make a kind of arch over the entry to the area with two crossed ladders extended from the ladder trucks. There are bagpipes, something I consider essential for any funeral.
We have attended several firefighter funerals since we moved here seven years ago: all natural deaths, none in the line of duty. A line-of-duty funeral would be overwhelming.
I take it there's a backstory for this?
Ah: Bad Data, Bad.
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