Excerpts from 25newsnow.com:
Though their deaths were decades ago, the East Peoria Fire Department honored the memory of four who died in the line of duty, the most recent of which was in 1980.
Honored were Assistant Chief Marvin J. Stein, Firefighter George Cornwell Sr., Captain Armando Ballerini, and Firefighter William A. Folmar. Stein and Cornwell died while responding to a fire in an apartment above the Green Gables Tavern in 1959. They were caught in an explosion and died.
Ballerini was responding to a house fire when he collapsed from a heart attack in 1972. In 1980, Folmar was off-duty when he came across a car accident on the Murray Baker Bridge before anyone else had arrived,. He left his car to provide aid and was struck and killed.
The families of the four were presented with plaques commemorating their service. They used to hang on a wall in the central station and have since been replaced with updated plaques describing their final act of service.
The fire department also honored Firefighter/Paramedic Hassan Drissi who was named their employee of the year.
