Miami Valley Firefighter/EMS Memorial at Sunset No. 3

In 2010 the Miami Valley Firefighter/EMS Memorial was erected in the Leonard E. Stubbs Memorial Park, in Centerville Ohio. The memorial’s non-profit held a juried selection process which also included families of Miami Valley’s fall firefighters. They selected this piece called “Firewall” created by Jon Barlow Hudson, from Yellow Springs, Ohio. His approach of using a bright red powder coat with a chromed steel diamond plate draws influence from today’s fire trucks. By cutting out a firefighter silhouette and then mounting the cut out behind the memorial gives this memorial a spiritual essence. For me, the cutout symbolizes the hole the families of the fallen experience, while the full silhouette mounted a few feet away gives hope the fallen exist in a nearby realm. While paying respects at this memorial, the setting sun paints the park in golden light.