Volunteer firefighter to get full honours funeral
SASKATOON More than 1,000 people could attend a full honours funeral service for the volunteer firefighter who was killed last week while responding to a highway collision near Rosetown.
The service for Darrell James Morrison is scheduled to take place Tuesday at the Rosetown Civic Centre starting at 2 p.m.
Dale Feser, a director with the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs, said a full honours service is “considered the most prestigious” service for people in uniform and is only held for members who die in the active line of duty.
The service will start with an honour guard, a pipe and drums band and a funeral procession that may involve one or more fire apparatuses.
“We’ve had an outpouring of support from right across Western Canada here for all uniformed service, so it’s not just the fire service, but we’re looking at RCMP, municipal policing, EMS, dispatchers, the fire service from right across Western Canada,” Feser said.
“We all know full too well that it doesn’t happen that often, but when it does, we definitely want to celebrate the life and honour the service that this individual provided to the community.”
He said he can’t remember the last time such a service was held in Saskatchewan.
“I know it’s been quite some time,” he said.
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.
According to a Facebook post by Morrison’s daughter, Cheyanne Morrison, it was foggy when her father got the call to respond.
A Gofundme page set up to support Cheyanne and Morrison’s son said Morrison was living with Cheyanne at the time of his death and Cheyanne, who is in Grade 12, is now taking care of the homestead they had shared.
Cheyanne wrote in a Facebook post that her dad was her “number 1 fan.”
“He helped me reach my every goal and if I failed he encouraged me to try again and again until I succeeded,” she said.
Rosetown fire Chief Dennis Ogg said in a statement that Morrison was a “great guy to work with” and was someone “who could always make me laugh.”
RCMP are investigating the collision.