by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Philadelphia’s has one. Boston’s has one. Now, Jacksonville’s wants one, too.
While many in Jacksonville would love to have a team in the Super Bowl, what Jacksonville’s Fire and Rescue Department really wants is its own commemorative funeral fire engine.
For many years, the JFRD has been wanting to customize one of its retired fire engines into a engine dedicated for firefighter’s funerals and special events, said JFRD Capt. Murray Kramer, the special events coordinator for the department.
They already have an old engine available but, due to the high costs associated with customizing the vehicle, the department has continually run into trouble allocating funds for the project.
Thanks to the Super Bowl, however, the JFRD has found a new way to raise funds for its funeral engine project: selling commemorative JFRD/Super Bowl lapel pins at each of its stations, city hall and at SuperFest once the festivities begin there. Commemorative lapel pins have proven to be very popular with attendees at Super Bowls in the past and Kramer said the $7 pins will be a great way to raise private funds for the project.
“We didn’t want to use city dollars to renovate this engine,” he said. “We wanted to try to do this through donations and money that we have raised. The profit from the pins will go to into a special trust and we will utilize that money to renovate the engine so it doesn’t cost the taxpayer anything.”
To come up with the lapel pin idea, Kramer worked with Theresa O’Donnell and Sherry Gottlieb from the city’s special events department. O’Donnell said the group went through about 20 different designs and O’Donnell said the traditional fire helmet was chosen because it is a symbol that people most commonly associate with a fire department.
O’Donnell said she thinks the JFRD pins will be a big hit.
“When people understand that they are not just buying a lapel pin but are helping to support an ongoing project, I think the pins will catch on,” she said. “This is a great way for people to take home something from the Super Bowl and benefit the local fire department at the same time.”
Kramer said he and several others in the JFRD, including Assistant Fire Chief Randy White, have been trying to get the funeral engine project off the ground for several years but have always had trouble finding non-tax funding for the project.
“We have been trying to come up with an idea to do this and we just never had the funds to do it,” Kramer said. “Obviously, it is not something that is budgeted.”
The organizers stress that all of the renovations will be paid for with private funds.
“This is a legitimate and worthy addition to the ceremonial function we have within the department,” said Tom Francis, public information officer, for JFRD, “We have been wanting to acquire this vehicle for some time but didn’t want to use tax money.”
Besides being used for funerals, the renovated engine will also be used in parades and many other ceremonies throughout the year. The engine will also be loaned to any city in the surrounding area that has a fire department-related funeral, he said.
JFRD District Chief Phill Eddins said cities such as Philadelphia and Boston have funeral engines and Jacksonville should be no different.
“Most major metropolitan cities have an engine that is dedicated as a funeral engine,” he said. “Size-wise, we are definitely metropolitan.”
Eddins said having a funeral engine is an important way to honor a deceased firefighter, even after the person leaves the department.
“After spending many years of your life riding on a fire engine, that is the way you want to be remembered,” he said.
“A cowboy wants to die with his boots on,” said Capt. Kramer.
The fire truck to be renovated for the project is a 1980’s engine the department used as a front line engine for many years. It’s now being used at the department’s training academy but is about to be replaced by another soon-to-be retired engine.