As “Amazing Grace” played softly, hundreds of mourners gathered on the city’s South Side Friday to say goodbye to Chicago firefighter Jermaine Pelt, who died of smoke inhalation while battling a fire in the West Pullman neighborhood last week.
Two firetrucks adorned with flowers and an American flag parked outside the funeral service at House of Hope, following a procession from Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn. A banner with Pelt’s smiling face hung over the parking lot. It read, “In memory of Jermaine A. Pelt who died Tuesday April 4, 2023″.
Inside the church, Pelt’s body was in a silver casket draped with a Chicago flag. Minister and officiator Ron Roby directed everyone in the audience — which included Chicago mayor-elect Brandon Johnson — to stand, except for Pelt’s mother and father.
“When you have a great brother like Jermaine, you have to recognize he came from great stock,” Roby said.
Roby called the ceremony a celebration of life. He told the mourners to turn to their neighbor and give them a “Jermaine-type” smile.
Pelt’s funeral came just one day after the city grieved another firefighter killed in the line of duty.
On Thursday, hundreds of mourners gathered at St. Joseph Ukrainian Catholic Church in Chicago to remember veteran Chicago firefighter Lt. Jan Tchoryk, 55, who died fighting an extra-alarm blaze at a Gold Coast neighborhood high-rise on April 5, the day after Pelt’s death.
[ ‘His life was all about service’: Chicago firefighter Lt. Jan Tchoryk laid to rest Thursday ]
The department has called the back-to-back losses “unprecedented.”
The youngest of four sons, Pelt was raised in the West Pullman neighborhood and walked his only daughter down the aisle at her wedding last fall.
The firefighter’s father, John Pelt, has described his son as smart, ambitious and “the kindest person I’ve ever met.”
At the funeral service, the father remembered that his son once debated between serving as a police officer or a firefighter.
“I would pick the fire department,” his father recalled responding to his son, believing it would be the safer of the two options. “Both of those jobs are very dangerous.”
He asked the crowd at the funeral to imagine what they would do without firefighters to keep them safe.
Pelt graduated from Corliss High School and attended many colleges and universities, including Olive-Harvey College, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University and Governors State University, according to his obituary. He recently became an instructor at the city’s fire academy and was also a nurse and paramedic.
He is survived by his adult daughter, Jorie, and 6-year-old son, Jared, according to his obituary.
His aunt, Velma Genus, called Pelt “my hero, in every meaning of the word.”
“To my dear nephew Jermaine, we have shared so many precious, happy moments over the years,” she said. “Our cup of joy runneth over ... One thing I ask of you, J: that as you walk down that path, just leave me a little clue, so when my time comes, I may walk that same way.”
Another aunt, Vern Moore, said Pelt “wrote his eulogy while he lived.”
She listed the many virtues of her nephew.
“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” she said. “Everyone who knows Jermaine knows that all of those adjectives pertain to him.”
Fellow firefighter Anthony Frazier described Pelt as a “quiet spirit,” but said he was famous at the firehouse for cooking his specialties, including jerk chicken, greens, cornbread and pot roast.
“I would go home and tell my wife, ‘Yeah, the cooking was OK today.’ But I was always lying. Jermaine always put a special type of love into it,” Frazier said.
Friend Chris Murray said Pelt was “the epitome of integrity.”
“He did the right thing,” he said. “If you wanted to be a part of his life, you had to be doing something right in yours.”
They always told one another “I love you, brother.”
“For the final time, I love you, brother,” Murray said.
The funeral culminated with a Chicago Fire Department bell-ringing ceremony, marking the second time the department has conducted the ritual in two days.
A sea of firefighters in the audience stood and saluted in Pelt’s honor. Three bells rang. Then three more. Then five more.
The 3-3-5 sequence signals firefighters have returned to the firehouse after a call.
After the final bell, the church audience was eerily quiet.
“Our brother, firefighter Jermaine A. Pelt, has returned home,” the Chicago Fire Department declared.
Sunshine beat down as the crowd gathered outside House of Hope after the service. Members of the fire department loaded the casket onto a firetruck, which was followed by a procession with bagpipes and drums.
Capt. Rory Ohse, who worked alongside Pelt, recalled he always had a special way of connecting with people.
“I think about all the experiences that his son won’t get with his father,” Ohse said.
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Ohse said he was in charge of Pelt’s candidate training, and said after it was over, Pelt gave him two cigars and a thank you card.
“I said to him: ‘Jermaine, firefighters don’t give each other cards!’” Ohse told the Tribune.
Ohse saved the cigars in the refrigerator for years, over his wife’s objections, waiting for a day when the two men could get together to smoke.
The cigars are still in his refrigerator, and Ohse said he’s never throwing them out.
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