Non-profits step up to help when first responders are killed in the line of duty
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Tragedies like the one that killed firefighter Bryant Gladney on Wednesday happen with relative frequency. Gladney died in a crash on I-70 Wednesday, the first on-the-job death for the Boone County Fire Protection District.
The U.S Fire Administration has reported 136 line-of-duty deaths of firefighters in 2021 and 62 in 2019, the lowest since USFA started its annual study.
When firefighters pass away, non-profit organizations step in to help honor the dead and comfort the living. These non-profits provide help for things that would often burden a family.
Organizations can provide help like a free funeral to ongoing financial assistance to families. The Missouri Fire Service Funeral Assistance Team is one nonprofit organization that steps in and helps victims and families in Missouri. Gale Blomenkamp, Assistant Chief for Boone County Fire confirmed they will assist their agency.
The team would be deployed immediately when a fire department requests them. The team serves in a behind-the-scenes capacity and offers suggestions based on what the department needs are, as well as the needs of the firefighter family.
The team stays in place for days, typically until funeral services are complete. The organization operates solely on donations and volunteers.
The funeral assistance team could be used to help with the fallout from Gladney's death. Gladney was killed Wednesday when a tractor-trailer sped through a crash zone where he was working, smashing his Boone County Fire Protection District SUV. It was the fire district's first death in the line of duty and the first in Boone County since Columbia firefighter Bruce Britt died in a 2014 walkway collapse at the University of Missouri.
During the news conference Wednesday, assistant chief Blomenkamp said an organization's help is how they move forward.
"Our biggest goal right now is we have a job to continue to do for our citizens but we also need to start taking care of each other. And so we have um processes in place to do that and in fact that and in fact, that's what we're in the process of doing right now this morning here," said Blomenkamp.
Information about Gladney's services wasn't immediately available Thursday. The Boone County Medical Examiner's Office said an autopsy was being wrapped up Thursday morning.
The BackStoppers is another Missouri non-profit organization that gives victims' families assistance. BackStoppers provides ongoing needed financial assistance and support to the spouses and dependent children of all police officers, firefighters and volunteer firefighters, and publicly-funded paramedics and EMTs in a certain coverage area who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
EMS victims' families can also request funeral services through the Missouri EMS Funeral Response Team.
