SPRINGFIELD - A firefighter who died in the line of duty from northern Illinois will be honored alongside three others by the State Fire Marshal on Tuesday.
Firefighters from more than 20 area departments took part in a funeral procession on Saturday for Wabash Fire Protection District volunteer firefighter Mehdi Mourad, 21, of Mattoon. The procession traveled from the funeral service at New Hope Church in Effingham to the burial site at Neoga Memorial Cemetery.
EFFINGHAM â The funeral for fallen volunteer firefighter Mehdi Mourad of Mattoon, who was from Morocco, drew a long procession of area firefighters and an online international audience on Saturday.
Mehdi Mourad PROVIDED PHOTO
The line of firetrucks included multiple units from the Wabash Fire Protection District in rural Mattoon, which 21-year-old Mourad decided to join this summer after arriving in the United States to study automotive technology at Lake Land College.
Police said the woman, 54, and her passenger, a 12-year-old girl from Centralia, were taken to an area hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
Wabash safety officer Gary Kepley said on Monday that Mourad, who asked to be called Matt by his fellow firefighters, had just officially joined the fire department five days before the crash and he had been responding to just his second call for service at the time.
Kepley said Mourad was from Morocco and attended Lake Land College on a student visa, like his brother before him. Kepley said he has been in contact with Mourad s family.