PAW PAW, Mich. — Hundreds of first responders from across the Midwest came to Paw Paw Saturday to remember and honor Lieutenant Ethan Quillen, a fallen volunteer firefighter with the Paw Paw Fire Department.
FOX 17 sat down with Fire Chief Jim DeGroff after the ceremony for an exclusive, one-on-one interview.
“To Ethan—your family supported you and your passion and now it’s our turn to support them. Your family’s our family. Rest easy, brother. We’ll take it from here,” Chief DeGroff said. “Lt. Ethan Quillen might be gone, but if you look right here on this fire truck, you’ll see his name. His name, now forever etched on his truck 1201, ready to serve his community.”
Paw Paw High School turned into a sanctuary Saturday afternoon where hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects for Lt. Quillen, who lost his life in the line of duty.
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“Looking out in that crowd, it’s humbling…They were there for us. They were there for Ethan. We’re there to honor him and honor his family and honor this department. Doesn’t get any better than that,” Chief DeGroff said. “I was overwhelmed to see so many people, firefighters, first responders, police officers, community, everything. It just honestly overwhelmed me. I was shocked. People told me this would be a large event, a large-scale event I guess, with everything that was going on. I didn’t really wrap my mind around that until I actually arrived and I seen the outpouring of support.”
The community Lt. Quillen cared so much about showed just how much he meant to them Saturday.
“It’s such a wonderful community and I’m proud to be here, lived my whole life in this town, and I’m very proud and honored to be their fire chief. Even though this has been one of the hardest…It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Chief DeGroff added.
People lined up for miles as emergency vehicles led Lt. Quillen to his final resting place inside Allegan’s Oakwood Cemetery.
“All those people waving the flags, saluting and the little kids wearing their little fire costumes touched my heart,” Chief DeGroff recalled. “I think at my eulogy, I said, ‘we can.’ We’re not going to ge4t rid of the scar in our soul sounds, but we can start filling them with good things to help pack those wounds…And the public helped us start packing that wound today.”
If you’d like to help support the family, a GoFundMe page has been set up for donations.
