Firefighters

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Philadelphia firefighter killed in the line of duty will be laid to rest on Monday. On Sunday, hundreds gathered to pay their respects to Lt. Sean Williamson .

You can watch the procession and funeral streaming on CBS News Philly and in the player above starting at 8:30 a.m.

Williamson served the city as a firefighter for 27 years. He was also a U.S. Marine and a family man. On Monday, all who knew him will get the chance to mourn and remember him.

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A viewing for Williamson was held in South Philadelphia on Sunday night . Family, friends, and fellow first responders gathered to pay their respects and salute their fallen firefighter for the final time.

Williamson was killed in the line of duty last weekend after rushing to put out a fire at a pizza shop in the city’s Fairhill section . The burned building collapsed on top of him about an hour later.

Many in attendance did not hesitate to call him a hero, including this family friend.

“When you go in to do the work that these men are doing and these women are doing, you just never know when that telephone or that doorbell is going to ring, and that’s sad,” family friend Giovanna Cavaliere said. “But they give their life and they’re all for us. So the least we can do is respect them and give them our all, in prayer and respect.”

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Williamson leaves behind his mother and one son.

The walking procession starts at 8:30 a.m. Monday. Dignitaries will carry the casket from 10th Street and Snyder Avenue to the Epiphany of Our Lord Church in South Philadelphia.

Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m.

The area around the church is blocked off so if you’re planning on attending, you’re encouraged to park in Lot T at Citizens Bank Park and take the Broad Street Line to the stop at Snyder Avenue.

View more logistical details about the services here .

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Be sure to stay with Eyewitness News for complete coverage on-air, online at CBSPhilly.com and our streaming service CBS News Philly.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The City of Philadelphia is honoring a hero who gave the ultimate sacrifice. First responders, family and friends gathered Monday morning to pay their respects to Philadelphia firefighter Lt. Sean Williamson.

Williamson was killed in the line of duty on June 18 after rushing to put out a fire at a pizza shop in the city’s Fairhill section . The burned building collapsed on top of him about an hour later.

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The funeral mass began at 11 a.m. at Epiphany of Our Lord Church in South Philadelphia. Firefighters from as far away as France and Montreal, Canada are paying their respects and honoring the ultimate sacrifice of Williamson.

Deeply moving scenes in South Philadelphia as a city salutes and bids farewell to the late Lieutenant Sean Williamson of the Philadelphia Fire Department. God speed. @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/vKxz9YANIK

— Joe Holden (@JoeHoldenCBS3) June 27, 2022

His death shook the city and renewed the painful reminder of the dangers of the job.

The seriousness of the loss can be summed up by the number of people who have paused Monday to be at Epiphany of Our Lord parish at 11th and Jackson Streets in South Philadelphia.

Father Casey shared some extremely powerful words on why there are firefighters.

“God said, I need someone to breathe for a person on the way to the hospital and watch them die and then dry their eyes and then focus on the next life that needs to be saved, so God made a firefighter. God said I need someone who can witness tragedy every day without losing their own humanity someone who can be the first one there at a bus accident, school shooting, or an airplane crash,” Casey said. “Be a rock for others and to go wherever they are needed, to finish 72-hour work weeks in three days and will put in another God knows how many other hours until the flames are no longer threatening life or property. So God made a firefighter.”

Williamson served the city as a firefighter for 27 years. He was also a U.S. Marine and a family man, survived by his mother and son.

A motorcade was held following the funeral.

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A viewing for Williamson was held in South Philadelphia on Sunday night . Hundreds gathered to pay their respects and salute their fallen firefighter for the final time.

Many in attendance at the viewing did not hesitate to call him a hero, including this family friend.

“When you go in to do the work that these men are doing and these women are doing, you just never know when that telephone or that doorbell is going to ring, and that’s sad,” family friend Giovanna Cavaliere said. “But they give their life and they’re all for us. So the least we can do is respect them and give them our all, in prayer and respect.”

Hundreds of firefighters have gathered outside the church to pay their respects to Lt. Sean Williamson @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/8Do17PJ5kI

— Ross DiMattei CBS-3 (@RossDiMattei) June 27, 2022

The walking procession started at 8:30 a.m. Monday. Dignitaries carried the casket from 10th Street and Snyder Avenue to the Epiphany of Our Lord Church in South Philadelphia.

View more logistical details about the services here .

MORE NEWS: Wildfire At Brendan T. Byrne State Forest Burns More Than 300 Acres

Be sure to stay with Eyewitness News for complete coverage on-air, online at CBSPhilly.com and our streaming service CBS News Philly.

A Monday morning fire at a Baton Rouge apartment complex caused by a malfunctioning dryer left almost a dozen people displaced, the Baton Rouge Fire Department said.

The blaze was reported around 4 a.m. at an apartment in the Park Place Apartments complex on S. Harrells Ferry Road. Firefighters arrived to find heavy fire coming out of one apartment.

Authorities said the fire, which started because of a malfunction clothes dryer, was contained to the apartment but other apartments near by were damaged by smoke and water.

Nine adults and one child were displaced by the fire and are being assisting by The Red Cross.

No one was injured in the blaze.

A fire broke out on the first floor of Mahindra Home Finance office in Tiruvannamalai on Saturday. There were no casualties. The firefighters battled for more than an hour to put out the blaze, which the police said might have been caused by an electric short circuit. “The UPS booster in a separate room in the office blasted, resulting in the fire in a portion of the building,” said D. Kamal Basha, Station Fire Officer (SFO), Tiruvannamalai Out Post (OP). Around 9.15 a.m. on Saturday, a few staff members at the office saw smoke emanating from the booster room on the first floor of the building, located near the market, and alerted the local fire office, which rushed fire tenders to the spot. With the fire restricted to the first floor of the building, which also has a public sector bank on its ground floor, one fire tender was deployed from the Tiruvannamalai town area. The fire was prevented from spreading to the neighbouring buildings.

Police said that at the time of the accident, no one was in the office. Record books and other things in the office were gutted. Residents of the area complained of breathlessness because of the thick smoke. A case has been registered by the Tiruvannamalai Town police.

A shopping centre with over 1,000 civilians inside has been hit by a Russian missile strike in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

“The mall is on fire, firefighters are trying to extinguish the fire, the number of victims is impossible to imagine,” said the country’s leader, writing on the Telegram messaging app.

Footage on social media showed a large number of people stood outside as a huge blaze raged inside the building and dark smoke billowed into the sky.

The city’s mayor Vitaliy Meletskiy said the strike on the “very crowded” structure had caused deaths and injuries, but gave no figures.

At least two people were killed and 20 were injured in the attack, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office.

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A rescue operation was under way and nine of the wounded were in a serious condition, Mr Tymoshenko added.

Mr Zelenskyy stressed the target presented “no threat to the Russian army” and had “no strategic value”.

He accused Russia of sabotaging “people’s attempts to live a normal life, which make the occupiers so angry”.

“Russia continues to take out its impotence on ordinary civilians. It is useless to hope for decency and humanity on its part,” the president said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians.

Kremenchuk is the site of Ukraine’s biggest oil refinery.

The industrial city had a population of 217,000 before Russia’s invasion in February.

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The attack came as Russia launched an all-out assault on the last Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, “pouring fire” on the city of Lysychansk from the ground and air, according to the local governor.

Western leaders meeting at the G7 summit in Germany have pledged continued support for Kyiv, including more air defence systems, and further sanctions against Moscow.