![]() ![]() In the stands, there were hundreds of firefighters in their dress blue uniforms - many from Unified Fire Authority, where Burchett spent most of his career, and Draper City Fire Department, where he ended it.ĭraper Fire Chief Clint Smith presided over the service, detailing the devotion of the late firefighter, who died Aug. And he called his son’s cellphone to leave one last voicemail of his own. Tom Burchett cried as he heard them again. “We’re going to drop Griff off at your place,” he says in another about his 6-year-old son staying with his grandparents for the weekend. “I’ve got some metal, and it turns out it’s extremely heavy,” Burchett says in one of the messages with a laugh. He held his phone up to the microphone Monday and played a few. He wanted to remember what his voice sounded like. It’s me, Matt!” When he died, Tom listened to some of the messages. Tom Burchett said his son always left him voicemails that started, “Hey, Dad. Many in the audience laughed a few wiped away tears.īurchett was smart and hardworking and, well, difficult to fully capture in words. I hope you slept well,” he recalled the dispatcher announcing to the crews in the morning. His siblings said he loved having a cup of coffee before each of his shifts - though he still fell asleep during his first night call in 1999, said his brother, Dominic Burchett. Watson talked of a man with stubborn determination and a funny sense of politeness - who never forgot to call his superiors “sir.” Burchett’s colleagues joked about his messy hair, “Cheshire cat grin” and “perverse pleasure” in completing difficult workouts. The parking lot was filled once again with fire engines, this time to honor Burchett, 42, who died during the deployment while fighting the massive Mendocino Complex Fire after a tree fell on him. ![]() “I just started giggling,” Watson recounted to the more than 2,000 people gathered at the Maverik Center to eulogize Burchett on Monday during his funeral, held at the same site where the Draper battalion chief had departed less then three weeks earlier with a volunteer crew of Utah firefighters going to California. While Mike Watson stood there wondering why a new recruit just cursed at him in training camp, Burchett had scrambled back up and stepped onto the platform. ![]() “Hell no!” he shouted in response and started down the other side of the wall. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |