By Shavonne Potts
Salisbury Post
The men stood at attention, hands raised to their caps as a bell chimed, signifying that fellow firefighters Victor Isler and Justin Monroe had returned home.
Isler, 40, and Monroe, 19, died Friday while fighting a fire at Salisbury Millwork.
Fire and law enforcement personnel from around Rowan County and beyond gathered Monday afternoon as a procession escorted the men from the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office in Charlotte back to Salisbury, ending at Lyerly Funeral Home.
Family stood side-by-side, some related by blood, others by brotherhood. Members of Monroe’s family stood alongside the firefighters.
Sunglasses could not mask their emotions or hold back tears that streamed down their faces as they watched firefighting vehicles from department after department make their way past the station.
Citizens waited, too. The wind whipped slightly on the quiet Salisbury streets as hundreds stood for hours to watch the homecoming of two men that most of them did not personally know, but to whom they wanted to pay tribute.
People lined both sides of the street across from the Salisbury Central Fire Station, much as they do in anticipation of a holiday parade. But the mood was somber.
“Assignment complete. Job well done,” Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell called over the radio as the procession came to a stop.
Many people left the curb to capture the day with cameras.
“I felt like I had to be here to honor them,” said 14-year-old Stephany Wright, of Salisbury, who stood with friends Shay Jefferies and Alexus Cox and caregiver Lalita Watkins.
“They put their lives on the line every single day,” Jefferies, also 14, added. “I look to them as heroes.”
Among the fire departments joining local agencies in the procession were Newell, Iredell and Mecklenburg. Also taking part was Cold Water, which recently lost firefighter James Earl Arthur. He was 19, like Monroe.
The events hit home for Marvin Yost, who was assistant fire chief when Salisbury firefighter Joseph Jenkins died on duty nearly 37 years ago.
Yost sat along a retaining wall with his family in front of Christo’s Family Restaurant. He didn’t know Isler or Monroe, but came out of respect, he said.
“I’ve been through this before,” he said. “It’s bringing back memories.”
Yost said his “thoughts and prayers” are with Monroe and Isler’s fellow firefighters as they deal with this loss.
Dewey Peck, Salisbury’s purchasing manager, said firefighters perform a difficult and dangerous job.
“These guys try to protect Salisbury,” he said. “It’s not something anybody would do. But it’s why they’re there, it’s what they have to do.”
Phyllis Taggart, of Salisbury, knows that. One of her sons is a junior firefighter, just as Monroe was only a few years ago. She brought four of her five children to witness the procession, she said, so “they can know what these people do for us.”
“I feel like this is something we should do to show our respect,” she said.
Salisbury resident Johnnie Leach said her sister in Maryland had heard about Salisbury’s loss. Leach knows a few of the firefighters, but didn’t know Monroe and Isler. Still, she didn’t think twice about coming to watch the processional.
“I felt like this was where I was supposed to be,” she said.
Many had that same feeling.
Rockwell Rural Firefighter Kenny Osterhus didn’t know the men, but that didn’t matter. He had to there Monday.
Being a firefighter, or law enforcement, Osterhus said, it’s not like a regular 9-to-5 job.
“Knowing that you might not come home,” is part of the reality, he said. And that’s part of what bonds firefighters together in a brotherhood. “You share that with everyone there.”
Some in the crowd did know the men.
Jerry Morgan and his wife, Mary, were at the beach when they heard the news. He recalled duck hunting with Monroe and his father, Eddie.
He recalled Monroe as a nice young man who would come to his house to sit and talk.
“You know he was a well thought of young man with all the crowd,” Morgan said, gesturing around at all the people.
Monica Pickler knew Isler. She works at Wendy’s restaurant across Innes from the fire station and saw the firefighters run across the street many times.
Pickler said Isler would ask if she was OK when her blood pressure got low.
“He was a caring person,” she said.
When the processional finally passed the station, the observers departed quietly. Standing in front of the station in their dress uniforms, firefighters embraced one another and wiped away tears.
Up the street from the Central Fire Station, a huge flag hung over the Square, held up by ladder trucks from Concord and South Salisbury fire departments.
Bells at St. John’s Lutheran Church started chiming at 6 p.m. when the procession neared the Square, and continued until it had passed through.
Scores of people lined both sides of Main Street. As the motorcycles at the front of the procession began the left turn onto Innes Street, people quietly surged forward to get a closer look.
Cub Scout Troop 443 from St. John’s stood at attention, saluting the fallen firefighters and their mourners, as did police officers, a man wearing a firefighter’s shirt and others. Some of the people placed a hand over their heart while others held up cell phones and cameras to snap photos. A man in a tattered coat removed his hat and held it to his chest. A woman shushed the toddler in her arms by putting her hand over his mouth.
The subdued crowd waited about 10 minutes to see the procession return from its trip past the Central Fire Station to journey southward to Lyerly Funeral home. Then, quietly, the crowd dispersed and traffic returned to normal on what for Salisbury was a far from normal day.
Memorial walls
Linn Honeycutt Funeral Home has erected temporary memorial walls at its locations in China Grove and Landis to honor Monroe and Isler. The public is invited to visit the memorials and sign books that Linn Honeycutt will send to the families of Monroe and Isler. The funeral home also invites visitors to leave flowers, photos, candles, memorabilia and drawings by children at the memorials, which will remain through March 21.
“We believe people need a place to go to express their sense of loss and grief,” Linn Honeycutt Manager G. Taylor Cumberworth said. “By erecting this memorial, we hope to provide such a place for the people of China Grove and Landis and surrounding communities to mourn the loss of these fallen firefighters.”
Linn Honeycutt is located at 1420 N. Main St. in China Grove and 716 S. Main St. in Landis.
Salisbury Post editor Elizabeth Cook contributed to this story.