RI firefighters honored with pipes, drums and praise at first-ever ceremony
EXETER The first bell tolled Saturday for Joshua Weaver, a volunteer with the Providence Fire Department who died responding to a March 20, 1828, call on South Main Street, leaving a wife and five children behind.
One hundred and forty-four bell tolls followed, each marking a Rhode Island firefighter who died in the line of duty from 1828 through 2018. Fire officials took turns reading each name aloud.
Hundreds of firefighters and their families joined state and federal leaders in the bright sunshine at the Rhode Island Firefighters Memorial in Exeter on Saturday for the first-ever celebration of firefighters’ service in Rhode Island.