Firefighter and related emergency services personnel lineup will be at 1000 hours. This is a personnel only memorial, no apparatus from visiting FD’s will be included. Public transportation for those attending is strongly recommended. This will be the only public funeral/memorial event for FF Stephens.
Lt. John H. Martinson is being honored today at a plaque ceremony, as this is the 1st anniversary of his death that happened in a Brooklyn high-rise fire. Lt. Martinson, 40, was trapped in a burning apartment at the Ebbets Field Houses complex on Jan. 3, 2008. He was separated from his Firefighters in heavy smoke conditions. Martinson, of Staten Island, was a 14-year FDNY veteran assigned to Engine 249 in Flatbush and was a police officer for four years prior. A 6-year-old boy accidentally started the fire by putting a piece of holiday wrapping paper on a lighted stove, then trying to hide the burning paper under a bed. Lt. Martinson died as his wife, Jessica, was pregnant with their second child. That baby, Katherine Grace, is now 7 months old and he also left behind a young son, John.
