PHOTOGRAPHER SEEKS TO HONOR FIREFIGHTING LINE OF DUTY DEATHS WITH “LAST ALARM:TRIBUTES TO FALLEN FIREFIGHTERS”

For photographer David Murphy, honoring fallen firefighters couldn’t be more important. It starts with the badge on his camera strap, which reads “Old Orchard Beach FD Lieutenant”. It was the badge his father wore as he served their hometown during the year 1977 (his 19th with the department). It’s one of David’s most cherished possessions since coming across it in a box of family keepsakes in a move about 2 years ago. Another of those cherished possessions is a key to David’s passion for photography, a simple Kodak snapshot from a go-kart parade down route 1 in Scarborough in the summer of 1977. Sitting in the lap of his father, William R. Murphy, Jr.,the two rode down the main traffic route in town. It’s the last photo of the two together. On his day off on December 7th, 1977, David’s father called in to the dispatcher to advise them he was responding to the call of a dog that had fallen through the ice of a pond up the street from their home. Following the successful extraction of the dog, alive, Murphy complained of fatigue, went up to his truck and suffered a major heart attack. He was revived on site, but lost on the way into Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Since December 7th, 2013, David has attended memorials and services that have had an organic connection to his life experiences as a Line Of Duty Death (LODD) Survivor. It began with David’s first visit to Worcester, Massachusetts for a Christmas concert by Christian artist Jeremy Camp. While there, he visited the Worcester Fallen Firefighters Memorial, commemorating the deaths of “the Worcester 6” on December 3rd, 1999 (four days before the 22nd Anniversary of David’s father’s LODD). It was the initial inspiration of “Last Alarm:Tributes to Fallen Firefighters”. David identified with the families of the Worcester 6 because the event happened just 4 days before the anniversary of his father’s death. He was well aware of the sort of emotions they would go through at the holidays and on other special occasions with the absences of their loved ones.

The following March, David was in Boston to celebrate his 40th birthday with a concert by the Grammy Award winning band Switchfoot, including a photo pass to photograph the performance thanks to their management company, Red Light Management. The following day, David visited the Massachusetts Fallen Firefighters Memorial at the state capitol building. While approaching the state park rangers at the gates, they engaged in a brief conversation and the rangers opened the gate on a Sunday afternoon to allow him the opportunity to photograph the memorial from inside the fence. Three days later, on David’s 40th birthday of March 26th, Boston Fire lost Lt. Ed Walsh Jr. and FF Mike Kennedy in a wind-fueled 9 alarm fire on Beacon Street. David returned to Boston for the annual service at the memorial on September 11th to pay tribute to Walsh and Kennedy’s deaths, as well as all other firefighters across the state lost in 2014.

David has launched a kickstarter online funding initiative to finance the remaining elements for 2016 to finish the project as envisioned. “The Home Stretch: part of the Last Alarm project” is open until May 13th to fund $4000 for travel to Emmitsburg, Maryland for a third time for the dedication of the Project Roll Call space at the national memorial. The space is reserved to honor all LODDs from the years before the establishment of the memorial under President Reagan in 1981, including David’s father’s. The dedication is scheduled for June 11th of 2016. Following that, David hopes to photograph Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Engine 3, dedicated on September 11th, 2015 at 8:46 AM to the memory of the members of FDNY killed in the World Trade Center attack. David hopes to finish the project by visiting New York City to photograph the 15th Anniversary of 9/11 at the World Trade Center Memorial.

In Portland, Maine on the night of September 11, 2001, a staff photographer for the Portland Press Herald took a photo of David, with his head buried in his hands near the front row. The editors of the paper chose that shot as the only local shot on the front page of the September 12th edition, providing another connection and motivation for David to continue this project through to honor the lives lost in the single greatest Line of Duty Death event in American history.