Sixty-eight years ago, Rochester firefighters Ambrose Riley and Stanley O’Brien were working to repair electrical toys for an annual Christmas distribution event to children in need when a call came in that a child had slipped through the ice on Silver Lake.
The men, who had joined the department on the same August day six years earlier in 1947, would die together that Christmas Eve in 1953 while attempting to rescue 9-year-old John Paul Stephenson from the icy waters of the lake. Stephenson also died, despite the department’s efforts to pull him from the lake.
On Friday more than two dozen Rochester firefighters and community members attended the brief ceremony at the Silver Lake Firefighters Memorial in honor of the men and those who had lost their lives in the line of duty.
“As our Lord commanded us to love one another, He said, greater love hath no man than this, that a man shall lay down his life for others,” motor operator Mike Rybarczyk said. “In the truest interpretation of this verse, the men and women who serve and protect our communities lay down their lives every time they respond to the needs of others.”
While reflecting on the past, the ceremony also looked to the present reality of the fire service as Rybarczyk said the men and women of the department face a more dangerous work environment than ever before.
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“We’re forced to continually change our strategies and tactics to accomplish our mission,” Rybarczyk said. “Although our methods may change, our goals remain the same as they have been forever — to save lives and protect property, sometimes at terrible costs. This is what we do. This is our calling.”
Firefighter Spencer Klemm said the department honors the men every year to remember the sacrifices they made as well as the sacrifice that everybody makes for the betterment of the community.
“We want to remember every year,” Klemm said. “We don’t want this to go unnoticed.”