Firefighters, family and fiends will gather Friday to remember a 47-year-old Los Angeles County firefighter and father of two killed as he battled a house fire.
The memorial service for Jonathan Flagler is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos.
Flagler was overcome by smoke and flames as helped battle a house fire early Jan. 6 in Rancho Palos Verdes. Colleagues pulled him from the fire, but he later died at a hospital.
Flagler is survived by his wife Jenny and their teenage sons, Brody and Jack. On Thursday, his family was presented with a flag at a solemn flag ceremony in Vernon at the station where Flagler began his career in 2002. The ceremony was at county Fire Station 13, which was previously known as Vernon Fire Department Station 1 before the county took over that city’s agency in 2020.
The station will be renamed the Jonathan Flagler Memorial Training Center.
Flagler was most recently assigned to county Fire Station 83. A flag that flew over that station was raised at Station 13 during Thursday’s ceremony, then later lowered, formally folded and presented to Flagler’s family.
“We’ll always remember the day we lost our brother,” county Fire Department Chaplain Vince Roldan said during the ceremony. “Jon was a true hero. And he lost his life in the line of duty upholding his oath to protect the lives and property of the community he served. There is a scripture in the gospel of John that says `Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.’ That’s the heart of a firefighter and it is also why we are all hurting so much right now.
“Jon Flagler had that heart. He lived a selfless life, always putting the people in his life that he loved first. Jon never did anything halfway. He gave his all in everything — as a husband, father, friend and as a firefighter. And that is why he will be missed but will never be forgotten.”
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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