The death of the brother motivates a life in the service for Tom Kimbel

Baltimore – James Kimbel, a fireman in Baltimore County, died in 1984 in a fire with two other firefighters.

He and the life of his co -fire brigade were honored on the first day of the fallen Heroes and inspired a life of service for his brother Tom.

James or Jimmy, as his little brother Tom calls him, was the guy that everyone loved.

“Jimmy, from the day he was born, would be a fireman. It was in him on a certain level that would never change,” said Tom.

From the high school, James volunteered for the local fire brigade.

“He bought a scanner, hung it over his bed, and the small crystal lights ran all night and when the thing be beeped, he jumped up, dressed and headed up and ran all the way to the voluntary Fire Company,” said Kimbel.

James made his dream possible to become a fireman.

He was Tom's best man at his wedding on October 19, 1984.

Then, while Tom and his wife Laurie were on vacation, it happened.

“Night we eat dinner and I said:” You know that something is wrong, I don't feel good, “said Kimbel.

Then they came back to the room.

“We went through the door and the little flashing red light was on the phone and she saw it first and she started going. 'Oh, I wonder who called and I am like, hey, um, let us give us a minute.

Tom's family told him that he should come home immediately and that something bad happened to his brother and didn't tell him how bad it was or what happened until he came to BWI.

“So we ended up in BWI, our parents were there, our families were there, and then they said Laurie and me that my brother had passed,” said Kimbel.

The following days were blurred until the funeral.

“It is inexplicable to try to explain to someone who was not there, and even more difficult from the family's perspective, because when we stepped out of the limousine and we approached the graves, the first sight that we saw, of course, were these three graves together,” said Kimbel. “Although from the family's perspective, it is the most important emotional event in their life that will ever happen, especially for my parents, but when I looked up what I saw, it is difficult to explain what I did not see was not 50, 60, hundreds, there were thousands of people from all over the country,” said Kimbel.

For Tom, the effects were profound.

An itching grew in him to become a fireman and he did it.

“My brother Walter and Henry, they are still gone, but they died, which is so deeply important in life that I started to believe that I have to do that,” said Kimbel.

Tom dedicated his life to the fire brigade.

Become battalion chief.

For the first day, Heroes Day was honored by James and his firefighters.

“You hear all the stuff and it is important to hear it because it relieves the pain a little,” said Tom. “I remember the first, 21 weapons greeting, I remember the trumpet on the hill,” he added.

“You will ever forget that for the rest of your life. I will never forget the moment when this trumpet sounded at the end,” said Kimbel.

Tom has not missed a fallen hero day for 40 years.

“It helps with the mourning process that goes there? Support of these younger families who go through this for the first time, even the second time, only the sense of community that helps in this mourning process on the first Friday,” we asked Tom.

“It does it and I think what you just said is extremely that every time we go there on every fallen heroic day. We really have a deep feeling of community, these are people who gather,” said Kimbel.

“My goal has always been from the first day to just go for a year in which we have no one who died on duty in the past 12 months would be a wonderful day,” he added

Tom, his wife and sons will be there on Friday, honor his brother and remind you of those who paid the ultimate victim.