Retired Little Rock firefighter Eugene Tucker had waited a long time for Saturday, the dedication of the Arkansas Fallen Firefighters’ Memorial on the Arkansas Capitol Mall.
Fighting a fire at the Fulk Building at Third and Main streets in 1972, fellow firefighter Jerry Jacobs Sr., 29, died while saving Tucker from a collapsing wall. In the following decades, as a proposal for a state firefighters memorial slowly became a reality, Tucker held on to a plaque commemorating the life and service of Jacobs. Saturday, he gave that plaque to Jacobs’ son, Jerry Jacobs Jr.
“I’ve held it for all these years because I knew if this [memorial] ever came aboutthat he’d be here representing his dad. So I gave it to him and rightly he should have it,” Tucker said.
Tucker was among dozens of current and former firefighters, police officers, other emergency-response personnel and elected officials from across the state who attended Saturday’s ceremony. The 6,000-pound bronze sculpture of four Arkansas firefighters was unveiled before an estimated 3,500 people to the sound of bagpipes and drums.
The sculpture, just under 12 feet high, sits between a 100-seat concrete amphitheater and a memorial wall listing the names of 104 firefighters and Arkansas Forestry Commission officers who have died on the job. The memorial project - which wasfunded through donations - cost about $1 million and took more than 20 years to bring to fruition, according to Bunny Brown of Jackson Brown Palculict Architects, the group that designed the memorial for free in collaboration with artists Robert Daus Sr., Robert Daus Jr. and Paula Haskins.
Speaking as to why firefighters risk their lives, Lt. Ray McCormack, a 32-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department, told attendees that the answer is, simply, love. Love for each other. Love for their families. And - when they put on their bunker gear to perform a job that he said can be “brutally difficult” - love for strangers.
McCormack said hewitnessed that love for strangers during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York City. Of the 2,996 people who died in the 9/11 attacks, “several dozen” of them were his friends, he said. They were among the firefighters who charged into the burning World Trade Center towers to help others.
“Firefighters are at the core of what is good about society. Their willingness to do more, to go above and beyond what people expect, is what firefighters are willing to do every day of the year. But they couldn’t do it without the love of their family, their friends … but for the families, their loss is the hardest. The loss is constant,” McCormack said, pausing to compose himself.
“The loss is forever.”
Jerry Jacobs Jr. shared McCormack’s sentiment, saying that he’s always thinking of his father. The night Jerry Jacobs Sr. died, Jan. 15, 1972, he was operating an aero-ladder, with Tucker at the top. The fire had spread to multiple floors of the building.
“It was pretty much out of control when we got there,” Tucker said.
Temperatures were well below freezing, and as the building was doused with water over several hours, its walls became heavy with ice. Then, there was a loud pop.
“The first thing I knew, the ladder was moving that I was on. And Jerry was moving me out of the way of the building as it started collapsing,” Tucker said. “It hit me, but it didn’t take the ladder down. Saved my life.”
The wall crumbled onto the firetruck, destroying it and killing Jacobs and firefighter Eric Oliver, 30. When the ladder crew received a new truck, it put a plaque on it memorializing Jacobs.
That’s the plaque Tucker gave to Jerry Jacobs Jr.
The Jacobs family and several other families of fallen firefighters watched as roses were placed on the memorial wall for each one of the dead. That was followed by the playing of “Amazing Grace” and a three-rifle volley, during which some attendees solemnly bowed their heads. Others placed caps over their hearts. Some, like Jerry Jacobs Jr., wept.
Dabbing his eyes with a tissue, Jacobs said knowing that his father died to save someone else has given him some comfort over the years. The memorial has, too.
“It means very much to me,” he said.
Gov. Mike Beebe reminded the crowd that firefighters are not the only ones who sacrifice to help others.
“While we honor the menand women who wear uniforms - whether it’s in the military, whether it’s in law enforcement, whether it’s in fire protection, or wherever it may be - we need to take time out and honor families, as well, because they, too, serve. Just like the men and women who wear the uniforms,” he said.
The names alongside Jerry Jacobs Sr.’s take up only part of the memorial wall. The rest of it is ominously blank, a sobering design choice that Brown said is a reminder of the dangers firefighters face.
“We did design where names could be added over the years, and the panels can be moved around so we can fill the wall,” he said. “These men and women are giving their lives to us every day in support of protecting the public. Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that others will fall over the years.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 15 on 03/23/2014