Cleveland’s Firefighters and First Responders
Location: Cleveland Firefighters’ Memorial Located on the Lake Erie waterfront between the Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 601 Key Plaza, Cleveland, Ohio, 41.506609 N, 81.697360 W
Just outside the East Gates of the Cleveland Browns’ First Energy Stadium, on a corner that competes for attention with the football stadium, the NASA Science Center, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there is this monument dedicated to the firefighters of Cleveland. Dramatic as it is, it is often unnoticed with all that is going on in the area. When most people run away from danger, first responders run straight into it.
That incredible sense of selfless heroism, determination, courage, and integrity is probably why most children, when asked for the first time what they’d like to be when they grow up, answer almost universally a first responder. It seems completely incongruent with our American psyche that, in these times, our police are being branded as inhumane and brutal rogue enforcers, with firefighters and emergency medical responders as equally cruel accomplices. And then, San Bernardino or some other atrocity happens. The “thin blue line” of the police force and the fire line of the firefighters is all that separates us from total disaster. It is important to remember that our first responders selflessly choose to be the front-line shield.
I encourage you to look around your town. No doubt, some folks, at some time, to a moment to appreciate those that serve our communities and ensure our safety and protection. You may discover a forgotten or ignored memorial dedicated to those upon whom we depend. When you find one, email us at monumentalmail@gmail.com and include comment about it with a link or a photo. You can visit the Cleveland Fire Memorial website at http://www.firememorial.com/.
To all who serve, have served, will serve, and especially those that paid the ultimate sacrifice “so that others may live,” Thank You!
Monumental USA is dedicated to highlighting local monuments and the human stories that lay at their foundation. The desire is to reinvigorate civic pride and sense of ownership through interesting monuments to events and personalities great and small across the nation, with a special focus on local and perhaps obscure or forgotten memorials.
