Firefighter funeral program template — for fire, police and EMS honors

What to record for a firefighter, officer or paramedic

The department's records office or the union will confirm the details the family wants printed: the rank held at retirement or at death, the company, station, precinct or district, the badge or shield number, the dates of service, and commendations in the order the department lists them. Write the rank in full on the cover — "Captain", "Lieutenant", "Sergeant", "Firefighter/Paramedic" — and keep abbreviations for the obituary once the full form has appeared. For a retiree, "(Ret.)" after the rank is customary. A member who served in more than one department, or in the military before the department, is listed with each and its dates.

Commendations — a medal of valor, a unit citation, a lifesaving award — go on a line under the service details or on a page headed "Service". The calls the family tells stories about belong in the obituary, with the year; the department will often supply the count of alarms answered or arrests made, and families like to print it. Where a detail is uncertain, leave it out rather than guess.

What happens at the honors

Honors vary by department and by whether the death was in the line of duty, but most services share the same elements. An honor guard from the department stands watch and carries the casket, often on the apparatus — an engine or ladder truck draped in black bunting — with the procession passing under crossed aerial ladders at the firehouse or the church. Pipes and drums play at the arrival and the departure. At the committal, the flag on the casket is folded and presented to the next of kin. The last alarm, or for police the end-of-watch call, is sounded over the radio or read aloud: the member's name and number, a final call with no answer, and the announcement that they have answered their last alarm. A bell may be rung — three sets of three, in the fire service — and the badge is sometimes retired.

In the program these are listed under the committal heading in the order they will occur, with a short line beneath each so that guests who are not from the service know what they are seeing and when to stand. We are not affiliated with any fire or police department, union or government body; the description above is what families commonly see, and the department and the funeral director decide the ceremony on the day.

Photographs, the sign at the door and the slideshow

The academy portrait, the photo on the apparatus, the promotion ceremony, the softball team: the eight-page program has a photo page for them beside the family photographs, and a small grid on the back. The welcome sign on an easel at the church door carries the portrait and the design; the memorial slideshow takes up to forty photographs and plays full screen at the firehouse or the hall afterward. All of it is made from the details entered once for the program. Printing is explained in how to print a funeral program, and wording for each section is in what to include.