Published: February 01, 2008 05:39 pm      

KEN HART: Last call for a fallen hero

I spent the better portion of last Sunday at a funeral.

The deceased wasn’t anyone I knew. I had been sent there to cover the ceremony for the newspaper.

But, I came away deeply regretting I didn’t have the opportunity to get to know her.

And, after the service was over, I felt as emotionally drained as I would have following the funeral of a close friend or family member.

An emergency responder’s last rites will have that kind of effect on you.

The funeral was for Christa Dawn Burchett, the 33-year-old emergency medical services director and assistant fire chief for Paintsville’s combined fire, rescue and EMS agency.

As you are probably aware by now, Burchett and a pregnant woman, Erica Brown of Salyersville, were killed on Jan. 22 when a loaded coal truck skidded out of control on U.S. 460 in Johnson County and struck both of them.

A few minutes earlier, Brown had been involved in a minor accident in which the icy road conditions were apparently a factor. She wasn’t injured, but Burchett, the mother of a 14-year-old daughter, was helping her to an ambulance so she could be taken to a hospital to make sure her unborn child hadn’t been harmed.

I have certainly attended more than my share of funerals over the years, in the courses of both my personal and professional lives.

Without question, Burchett’s had the largest crowd of any I’ve ever been to.

Most of those in attendance were her fellow firefighters and paramedics, who traveled from as far away as Louisville to pay their respects.

It’s safe to say, I think, that most of those folks probably never knew Burchett, either.

Still they came, because as Boyd EMS Director Tom Adams put it, they all realized that it could’ve just as easily been any one of them on the shoulder of that road.

Following a service in the gym at Louisa Middle School, Burchett’s body was transported via fire engine to the memorial gardens at Yatesville Lake, where her firefighter rites were performed.

During such services, there always comes a moment that is so overwhelmingly emotional that it wrings tears from even the most hardened of individuals.

That is when the deceased’s “last call” is broadcast over emergency radio frequencies.

“Unit 106, Christa Dawn Burchett, this is your last call,” the dispatcher’s voice intoned. “May you rest in peace.”

With those words, many of Burchett’s fellow emergency workers — particularly those on the Paintsville department — wept inconsolably, their sobs echoing through the hills that surround the lake.

I’m not the least bit ashamed to say I cried with them.

It is such moments that serve as grim reminders of the enormous peril that emergency responders often place themselves in to assist others.

Of how they perform their duties without question when they are called upon to do so.

Of how they do not see the things that often divide us as people — such as race, politics, social status and sexual orientation — when they respond to calls for help. They see only people who are in need.

Of how they are truly some of the finest and bravest among us.

I hope I never have to cover the funeral of another firefighter, EMS worker or police officer who has paid the ultimate price in the line of duty.

Chances are, though, I probably will.

Their work is dangerous by nature.

I know I’m thankful there are people who are willing to do it.

You should be as well.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.