The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) is set to host the 43rd National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend on May 4-5, 2024, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. This annual tribute will honor 89 firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2023, along with 137 firefighters from previous years.
Among those being commemorated are Missouri firefighters Lloyd Ruediger and Raymond Wynn. Firefighter Lloyd Ruediger, aged 84, from the New Haven-Berger Fire Protection District, responded to a residential fire on June 25, 2023. After returning home around 10:30 p.m., he was found deceased the following morning from an apparent heart attack. Captain Raymond Wynn, aged 62, from the Kansas City Fire Department, passed away on March 27, 2021, due to complications from metastatic lung cancer, which was deemed a line-of-duty death by the State of Missouri.