Praise, tears fill tribute to fallen firefighters

Devotion. Duty. Sacrifice. Pain. Those words rang out in a hushed church chapel on Thursday, where hundreds of firefighters from Houston and around the country honored two brothers who died in the line of duty. Several speakers fought for composure as they recalled their affection for veteran Houston Fire Department Capt. James A. Harlow, 50, and for promising probationary firefighter Damion J. Hobbs, 29. The rookie and the fire captain, paired as a team at Station 26, died Easter Sunday morning in a southeast Houston home.

“These men responded to someone they never met, tried to protect something they never owned, and we miss them terribly,” said an emotional Phil Boriskie, chief of the Houston Fire Department.

Turning to address Harlow’s widow, Debbie, the chief spoke not only of Harlow’s devotion during 29 years on the job, but also of his devotion to a large and close-knit family. “You know his W-2 may not have reflected it, but he was a very rich man, (with) love from both his family and the department,” Boriskie said.

Earlier, Executive Assistant Fire Chief Rick Flanagan shared a letter from fellow firefighters at Station 26. The men recalled how Harlow, an East Texas native nicknamed “Hogleg” for his love of cooking wild game, once served a 10-pound “medium-rare meatloaf” he cooked in 45 minutes.

And they remembered awarding Hobbs a T-shirt with the word “rookie” printed on it, their seal of approval to a promising firefighter who had been on the job only a month and six days when he died. Hobbs, an Alvin native, served in the military for a decade. He delayed entry into the Houston Fire Department to complete duty in Iraq.

“These men demonstrated, with the ultimate sacrifice, what it means to serve with courage,” said Steve Riggle, pastor of Grace Community Church, where the service was held.

Mayor Bill White said the deaths forced many to “plumb the depths” of the greatest mystery of the universe, the question of: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
“Sometimes God needs to intrude in our lives to bring us all together and remind us of what’s most important … to recognize the fact that lives are not measured in days, but in how much we give to others,” White said.

Firefighters from as far away as New York attended the nearly 2-hour service. Hundreds marched for a mile from a nearby Station 93 and accompanied Station 26 fire vehicles, which bore Harlow’s and Hobbs’ red caskets.

Firefighters Paul Neville and Tony Giaconelli represented New York City. “I thought it was very in-touch, very warm,” said Giaconelli. “It’s a little different from how we do it in New York. It’s more of a close-knit, family-type ceremony.”

“To me, it was really touching,” said Cheri McGinnis, a cousin of Hobbs from Alvin. “I know Damion would have liked it.”

The deaths of the two firefighters, the seventh since 2000, are under investigation by federal and state fire authorities, as well as an internal inquiry by HFD.
By James Pinkerton, The Houston Chronicle
Photo by Johnny Hanson, The Houston Chronicle
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Firefighters gather to memorialize two lost comrades
Hundreds and hundreds of firefighters amassed in a ribbon of blue along the Gulf Freeway feeder road today, forming a somber procession to the memorial service for two comrades who died in the line of duty Sunday. The group walked from Fire Station 93 to Grace Community Church in southeast Houston for the morning service to honor Capt. James Harlow and firefighter Damion Hobbs. The two men died while fighting a Hobby Airport-area house fire.

Harlow, 50, and Hobbs, 30, weren’t aware the owners of the burning home at the 7800 block of Oak Vista already had escaped. They missed roll call after firefighters were ordered out of the structure.

Harlow was a 30-year veteran of the fire department. It was Hobbs’ first fire.

Senior Capt. Mike Davis, who worked with Harlow and Hobbs at Station 26, said the firefighters there “got together and wrote things” about the two men. He gave the letter to Executive Assistant Chief Rick Flanagan to read at the service.

Flanagan related that during Hurricane Ike last September, the department stopped making calls for awhile as the storm raged. As firefighters were hunkered down at Station 26, they heard a vehicle drive up.

“Men, I don’t know how I made it through this storm,” Harlow announced on his arrival.

“To give you an idea of the kind of commitment this guy had, when we stopped, he was still going,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan said Harlow, because of his thick country accent, was known as “Captain Hogleg” around the firehouse. He displayed a “kid-like” spirit and was force on the volleyball court against foes two decades his junior.

Station 26 firefighters said they did have to wrest cooking duties from Harlow, for the sake of their arteries.

“He had his own food group: butter, butter and more butter,” Flanagan said.

Hobbs hadn’t been around long but already had been accepted by the others at Station 26 and, the veterans said, had embraced his new profession.

“He was a good rookie: always reading, always cleaning, always learning,” Flanagan said, still reading from the letter. “He served in the military like many of us did, it was obvious he dedicated his life to public service and to make our world a better and much safer place. He had what it takes to be a great firefighter.

“We miss him dearly.”

Mayor Bill White said he was there to express the gratitude of Houstonians for the sacrifice of Harlow and Hobbs.

“To them firefighting was not a job, it was who they were,” White said.

The church was a sea of different uniforms as firefighters, peace officers and military gathered to pay their respects.

“I came here to honor my fallen comrades,” said Joe Zepeda, 40, with the Southeast Volunteer Fire Department in unincorporated Harris County. “It hits everyone when someone falls.”

He estimated his department alone sent 40 to 50 people to the service. Elsewhere around Houston, firefighters from other cities responded to calls to free up as many city of Houston firefighters as possible to attend.

Outside the church, four trucks extended their ladders to form a giant archway, and two suspended a large American flag. Three vehicles from the dead firefighters’ Station 26 were out front, draped in black and adorned with flowers.

Harlow and Hobbs were the first Houston firefighters killed since 2005, when 39-year-old Capt. Grady Burke died after a ceiling collapsed as he fought a fire inside another southeast Houston home.

Federal investigators are examining whether gusty winds accelerated the fire faster than usual.

The procession caused traffic to slow to near a standstill on I-45 northbound, and the feeder road was closed to make way for the firefighters.
By James Pinkerton, The Houston Chronicle
Photo by Julio Cortez, The Houston Chronicle