For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, LODD stands for Line of Duty Death, used when speaking about fire fighters. And thus far, as long as I can remember the closest to home in a long time. On Saturday August 9, 2008, a good friend, great instructor, and my chief’s brother collapsed during a structural burn training session. He later passed away at the hospial in cardiac arrest.
This was a very devastating death for the local communities around where I live. Just about everyone in this area knew Sean Whiten, or was taught by him at some point. He taught me everything that I know about fire fighting. In fact, my class was the last Essentials class that he taught beginning to end.
He was laid out at the funeral home for two nights. Tuesday night my station, 33, went and paid our respects to Sean and his family. We were the largest group of firemen there that night. Wednesday night there were somewhere around 500 fire fighters there for a memorial service for Sean.
Yesterday morning was the full out fire fighter’s funeral for this man who will be greatly missed. There were somewhere around 1000 fire fighters in attendance for his funeral services. There were more than 125 fire apparatus in the small towns of Roscoe and Stockdale where the funeral services were held. There were bag pipers playing in the distance, and not a dry eye in the place. Once Sean’s casket was carried out and put into the hearse, among full salute from his fellow fire fighters, the county set off his tones and gave Captain Sean T. Whiten his “last call” You could hear his fire whistle going off in the distance, among the sniffles and tears from 1000 fire fighters.
This was a great man, who taught many people many things about the fire service, myself included. He will be sadily missed by everyone.
