Home»All Photographs»Fire & Emergency Service Events»Fire and Police Funerals»Baltimore County, MD Lays Firefighter To Rest

Saturday, January 24, 2009- Several hundred fellow firefighters, family members and friends gathered on a windy and frigid Saturday January 24th to pay final respects to Baltimore County, MD firefighter Thomas E. Rice. Better known as “TR”, Rice, 44, passed away on January 21st after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Following the service at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore, escorted by dozens of emergency service apparatus, TR’s coffin rode to his to his final resting place in the Fallen Heroes section of Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens aboard BCoFD Truck 1, where he served as a Fire Apparatus Driver Operator on B Shift. TR, who served with the Baltimore County Fire Department since 1988, was a 28-year member and former captain of the Providence Volunteer Fire Company, and a member of the Kingsville Volunteer Fire Company, was given a funeral with full fire department honors. TR also worked at stations 7 (Essex), 8 (Fullerton), 10 (Parkville) and 11 (Hillendale) during his career, and was an instructor with the Maryland Fire Rescue Institute. Since TR’s diagnosis in September 2007, the Baltimore fire community had rallied around the Rice family, providing meals and support and staging fundraisers for his wife Karen, 18-year-old daughter Becky and 15-year-old son Thomas E. Rice, Jr., who like his father is a member of the Providence Volunteer Fire Company. NOTE - DUE TO THE FAMILY'S REQUEST, GRAVESITE PHOTOS HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS POSTING.