FIREFIGHTER LAID TO REST
Hundreds join funeral march
ROSETOWN Hundreds of first responders marched down Highway 4 in Rosetown as part of a full honours funeral service to remember Darrell Morrison, the volunteer firefighter who was killed last week while responding to a highway collision near the town.
The service was private, at the request of Morrison’s family, but members of the public lined the snowy streets to watch firefighters, police officers, paramedics, search and rescue personnel and Mounties march from the town’s Elks Lodge to the Rosetown Civic Centre, where the service was held.
One uniformed member carried a yellow helmet in honour of his fallen brother.
Speaking with reporters after the funeral, Saskatchewan’s deputy minister of public safety, Duane Mckay, said Morrison’s name will be immortalized at the Canadian Firefighters Memorial in Ottawa. He acknowledged the pain of Morrison’s family, the Rosetown fire department and the Town of Rosetown.
“When a tragedy such as this occurs, it affects not only the family, but obviously the volunteer fire service as well,” he said.
“This type of incident affects everybody, and it really speaks to the type of people that are drawn towards the public-safety field, helping citizens, but also surrounding each other and wrapping the entire public-safety arms around a community and family that suffers these tragic losses.”
Morrison, a member of Rosetown’s volunteer fire department, died on the morning of Nov. 21 after he was hit by a semi truck while responding to a crash between two other semis on Highway 4, about 23 kilometres north of Rosetown. No one was injured in the original collision, which involved a southbound semi smashing into a semi that was turning onto Highway 4 to travel north.
According to a Facebook post by Morrison’s daughter, Cheyanne Morrison, it was foggy when members of Rosetown’s 20-person-strong volunteer fire department got the call to respond to the crash. Cheyanne, a 17-year-old high school student who is also a member of the volunteer fire department, opted not to go because of the poor conditions.
A Gofundme page set up to support Cheyanne said the teen now needs support to pay for daily living expenses.
No charges have been laid, and the RCMP continue to investigate the incident.
Mckay said the provincial government will sit down with the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs over the next few weeks to discuss how to improve safety for firefighters responding to highway collisions.
“We’ll look for ways that we can improve safety, but at this particular point we’ll just have to look at that and see what it is that we can do,” he said.