Community Corner

Former Hopelawn Fire Chief Turcotte is Laid to Rest

Fire companies, EMS personnel, and police throughout the region showed up to show their respect and admiration for firefighter Bruce Turcotte in Woodbridge.

Busloads of firemen, a phalanx of police, and a small army of bagpipers and drummers showed up at the Wednesday to bid farewell to former Hopelawn Fire Company Chief Bruce Turcotte.

The firefighter was felled by a heart attack last week while laying out hoses as part of a prelimary team called to fight an arson fire in the Menlo Park Terrace section of Woodbridge.

Turcotte was the first firefighter from the Hopelawn fire company to lose his life in the line of duty. He was a longtime volunteer member of the firefighting community and beloved by friends, family, and the legions of firefighters who came to pay their respects.

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This included dozens of bagpipe and drum corps from all parts of the state, there to be part of an escort for Turcotte as they made their way from the funeral home several blocks away to Our Lady of Peace Church in Edison for the funeral mass.

"We're here to show support for [Turcotte's] hardworking heroism," said Fireman David Holmes, a 10-year veteran of the Newark Fire Dept. who also volunteers to march with the department's bagpipers and drummers.

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"We owe it to him to give him the right kind of send off."

His fellow Newark fireman, Jamal Whitaker, has been in the department for six years, and he's been member with Holmes of the Newark Pipe and Drum Corps nearly as long.

"We've been to a lot of funerals to pay our respects. You never get used to it," Whitaker said. "We usually do these things in Essex County, but we'll go wherever we can to show our support."

Newark Fire Dept. veterans Tom McGovern and Wally Brownlee were each on the force for decades, and still serve with the Newark Firefighters Pipe Band. 

How Turcotte died particularly affected McGovern, because he had suffered a heart attack himself during a fire. "I was on my way up the stairs to the second floor and suddenly I knew something was very wrong," McGovern said. 

"It's a very, very physically demanding job," he said as Brownlee nodded.

The firemen waited quietly outside the funeral parlor for their final march for Turcotte to begin. In the background an enormous American flag hung from a crane over the street in Turcotte's memory.

A retired corrections officer for Middlesex County, Tom Kaminski now played the bagpipe with the Middlesex Police & Fire Pipes and Drum Corps.

"I do this at least thee times a year," he said. While Kaminski didn't know Turcotte personally, he knew others who were friends with him.

"You couldn't help but be impressed by the loyalty his friends have for him and by his service to the people in town," he said. "Bruce's death is as much a loss for us as it is for the people of Woodbridge."

Carol, a Fords resident, stood by the sidelines, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

"I knew Bruce. I worked with his son, and my father was a firefighter with him. He was the greatest guy. He'd do anything for anybody," Carol said.

"His life was his family and the fire department."

The horse drawn caisson was in the background, ready to transport Turcotte's body to the church. After a closed ceremony inside the church and one outside with the firefighter's son receiving his father's helmet, the firefighters, police, and EMS workers would be following the procession to for a private burial.

 


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