Firefighter's hometown unveils bench in his honor

Mark Kelsey's mother was speechless. She rubbed her fingers across his name etched into the granite "Fallen Firefighters" bench. Then her hometown firefighters astounded her again.

She had told them she would wear a firefighter shirt every day for the rest of her life. In a surprise ceremony unveiling the memorial bench Tuesday, members of the Washington, Ind., fire department gave Paula Kelsey emblem shirts, badges and photos from more than 100 fire departments in the region and with the military in Iraq.

"She cried. She was just totally blown away," said Washington firefighter Bobby Norton, who put together the ceremony. "We told her it was from our family to yours. She said she knows now she has a whole other family."

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In an interview with the Washington Times-Herald, Kelsey called it overwhelming. The weekslong secret had been tough to keep in the small farm town, where Kelsey knows everybody, said her daughter-in-law, Patty Kelsey.

Mark Kelsey, 40, was the gruff, motorcycle-riding engineer who died with eight other Charleston firefighters June 18 in the Sofa Super Store blaze. His body was taken home to Washington, Ind.

The bench was dedicated at the Hill of Heroes war memorial in Eastside Park, paid for by the Local 495 chapter of the International Association of Firefighters, said president and firefighter Dwayne Murphy. "Somebody can go out there, sit on the bench, looking at the 'Hill of Heroes' and all those flags," Murphy said. Mark Kelsey's name sits alone on an upper corner of the seat, a design that provides for other names to be added.

"I hope this city never, never has to put another name out there," Paula Kelsey told the newspaper.

She has been stopping by the town fire station every few days, wearing firefighter shirts she has been given. After she told firefighters she didn't want to wear anything else, Norton e-mailed stations throughout the region, asking them to send shirts. Letters, shirts and patches came in from several states and from a firefighting unit in Iraq.

Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.