Fire Engineer Scott Desmond (left) and Fire Capt. Matt Burton (Photos courtesy of Con Fire)
The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (Con Fire) paid tribute to two fallen firefighters on Wednesday morning with a radio call and moment of silence. To honor their heroism, a radio call was broadcast across all Con Fire radio channels at 8 a.m., followed by a moment of silence. Then at 9 a.m., Con Fire conducted a brief remembrance ceremony at its Memorial Wall on the Training and Safety Campus in Concord.
The full transcript from the radio call follows:
“In the early morning hours of July 21, 2007, Fire Captain Matthew Burton and Fire Engineer Scott Desmond made the ultimate sacrifice. Both men died in the line of duty while making a valiant effort to rescue an elderly couple trapped in their burning home.
By Mike Kinney
The new, state-of-the-art fire station on 23rd Street in San Pablo is set to begin functioning with fire personnel on Monday, April 19, and will have a four-person ladder truck crew and three-person engine crew operating there this summer, according to Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ConFire) officials.
On Tuesday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the newly-completed, $14 million Fire Station 70 at 23rd and Market streets.
The long-awaited two-story station was funded by a partnership between ConFire and the City of San Pablo in order to replace an inadequate station at 13228 San Pablo Ave., which operates out of modular buildings that were installed in 1992 after the permanent station was damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake.