LAYTON — The bagpipe played, and a lone firefighter walked off in the distance, disappearing under an arch of spraying water that stretched toward the heavens.
Hundreds of firefighters watched in hushed silence, and hundreds cried.
The symbolic march represented the last fire fight of Kendall Bryant, the state's first firefighter to die battling a structure fire in more than a decade.
Bryant, 36, was killed Friday in a house fire in Layton after he entered the burning building looking for possible victims.
On Tuesday, about 1,000 people, many of them firefighters from across the state, came together to give their fallen comrade a hero's send-off.
Bryant's casket, sitting atop an Ogden fire engine draped in black and adorned with a wreath, passed under a majestic archway created by 14 firetrucks that extended their ladders to the sky.
That truck led a procession at least 3 miles long of 200 fire engines and other vehicles that made their way from Ogden, where Bryant worked as a full-time firefighter, and then onto Layton, where he fought fires on a part-time basis.
It was on the grounds adjacent to Layton's new station where the final alarm was sounded for Bryant, a 36-year-old father of three who loved country swing, tall tales and western writer Louis L'Amour.
First, a bell rang three times for a silent crowd, a symbolic ringing that signals the end of a firefighter's shift, that the blaze is conquered and it's time to call it the end.
Afterward, the crowd listened to the final callout for Bryant as each of the nine stations in the two cities where Bryant worked received the paging tones for a fire. The callout was broadcast for the crowd, and as the Layton dispatcher made the final alarm for Bryant at 3:49 p.m., his voice cracked.
When firefighters spoke of Bryant, they described fierce dedication to a profession often fraught with danger, low pay, high stress and great rewards.
He was one of those new breed of firefighters who really love what they do, who become firefighters because they love the job, Ogden firefighter Val Heiner said.
When it came to battling a blaze, Bryant was like a kid and chocolate, savoring the job so much he'd be first in line to tackle the challenge.
"He was the kind of guy who'd go do it and come back and do extra," Ogden Fire Capt. Daniel Harmon said.
"We were first in on a palette fire," said Harmon, who was Bryant's first captain in Ogden. "He was always jazzed. There are a lot of good firefighters out there, but he was one who stood out."
Tuesday's ceremonies, which lasted four hours and were rife with tradition, portrayed the solidarity of firefighting.
"The job today entails so much more than it ever used to," Heiner said. "Unless you've done it and been there, it's impossible to understand. Bryant is everybody's loss."
As that lone firefighter symbolizing Bryant walked out of everyone's view, some of his Layton colleagues had to brush back their tears and leave for a reason Bryant would have understood.
It was a call, and somewhere in Layton, a little girl needed help.