Thinking back to the morning of May 19, 1943, Elmer Hansen recalls speeding to a fire at the Victory Theater on 300 South between State and Main.
"I was driving the battalion chief who was in charge," the 81-year-old retired firefighter said. "When we got there, he told me to get another line into the theater as quickly as possible."Hansen said he hooked up a hose across the street and pulled it into the foyer just as the theater's roof caved in.
"Somebody came running out and said there were several firefighters trapped inside," Hansen recalled. "I can see that fire as plain as can be."
Three firefighters perished and a number of others were "bruised and battered" in the Victory Theater blaze, the deadliest in the Salt Lake City Fire Department's history.
On Sunday morning - the 53rd anniversary of the tragedy - about 100 current and retired firefighters, family members and dignitaries gathered at Fire Station No. 1, 211 S. 500 East, for the dedication of a monument to those three firefighters and 10 others who have died in the line of duty:
Asa Hall Hancock, July 13, 1920; Robert E. Lee, Aug. 3, 1925; A. L. Thorstrum, April 30, 1929; Merrick D. Blake, Feb. 8, 1936; Harland S. Theobald, April 22, 1942; Harry Christenson, Melvon L. Hatch and Theron D. Johnson, May 19, 1943; Paul Hamilton, June 10, 1943; Alva W. Johnson, May 14, 1944; Kline B. Carroll, Dec. 7, 1946; J. Robert Spence, Sept. 2, 1967; and Orson E. Nebeker, March 2, 1975.
On the other side of the monument is the "Fireman's Prayer," which includes a hope "to fill my calling and give the best in me, to guard my every neighbor and protect his property."
The 13 whose names appear on the monument gave their best, the ultimate sacrifice, said Fire Chief Thomas J. Tallon. "This monument will remind us of the firefighter's credo: `To serve and to protect.' "
It should also serve to remind everyone of the need for safer buildings, better firefighting equipment, more training and public education, the chief added. "Because the best way to fight a fire is to prevent it before it happens."
Mayor Deedee Corradini called firefighting "one of the most difficult jobs we ask people to do." She said it's important to remember the sacrifices made by firefighters "day in and day out."
Nodding toward the widows of two fallen firefighters, Capt. William Platt, the department chaplain, said the wives and children of firefighters also make sacrifices."We pray we never have another name added to this monument."
Platt said all firefighters understand that when they go out on a fire, they may never come back. Though some fires are shrugged off as routine, they are all dangerous, he said.
Hansen, who was unable to attend the ceremony, knows that all too well. His 35-year career with the department ended in the 1970s when he fell through the burning roof of Salt Lake City's old Garfield School.