By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – Funeral services were held Friday for a Buffalo firefighter killed in Iraq. Army Staff Sergeant Christopher Dill, 32, was laid to rest at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Tonawanda.
Dill received military honors as well as special honors from the Buffalo Fire Department. A few hundred firefighters from across Western New York and beyond lined the approach to the church. Dill would have celebrated his seventh year as a city firefighter this week. He was working at Engine 21 on Jefferson Avenue before being called to active military duty last October. He was a reservist with the Army's 98th Division, based in Rochester.
Buffalo Fire Chaplain Fr. Joseph Bayne and Fr. Robert Wozniak of St. Edmund's celebrated the Mass of Christian Burial. Bayne said Dill was proud to be an American, serving in Iraq and here at home.
"He was called. He went. And he served, much like he did when he got up in the middle of the night at Jefferson and Kingsley." said Bayne. "He did it so that others might live."
Students from St. Edmund's also participated in the service. They held up a sign outside the church that read, "thanks for protecting and serving us."
The procession included not only firefighters but such law enforcement agencies as the State Police, the Erie County Sheriff's Department and the Amherst and Niagara Falls Police Departments.
Following the Mass, a long procession headed to Mount Olivet where Dill was buried with full military honors that included Taps and a military gun salute. The most emotional moment came when a soldier and Buffalo Fire Commissioner Michael D'Orazio presented flags to Dill's wife Dawn and his mother, Marsha.