WETHERSFIELD, Conn. — A visitation was held Sunday for the firefighter who died in the line of duty fighting the Hawthorne fire on Lamentation Mountain in Berlin.
“He’s going to be sorely missed, he really is,” said Captain of Company Three in Wethersfield Daniel Bresnahan.
American flags, fire trucks and a line of people were outside the Farley-Sullivan Funeral Home to pay respect to fallen hero Robert "Sharkey" Sharkevich Sr.
He passed away on Oct. 22 in a utility vehicle rollover crash while trying to contain the brush fire on Lamentation Mountain in Berlin.
“It’s really important to show up. People show up from all over New England and various departments here in Connecticut, It’s a brotherhood, a sisterhood. Everyone kind of bonds together and helps everyone else out in these types of situations,” Blue Hills Fire Chief Wyllie Jones said.
Bresnahan said everyone’s been really supportive.
“A lot of guys coming to you coming together today and it's got to be overwhelming for the family. But it's such a beautiful thing,” Bresnahan said.
Both Bresnahan and Jones knew Sharkevich.
“He was a funny guy, a good guy. No one can say anything bad about him,” Jones said.
Bresnahan said he doesn’t see how anybody can ever fill his shoes.
“He's such a unique guy and we're gonna have a hard time,” Bresnahan said.
Sharkey was a retired Hartford firefighter and a volunteer firefighter in Wethersfield but he was more than that.
“He was an engineer of Engine 31, this piece of apparatus right here. He was the one who took care of it,” Bresnahan said.
Bresnahan remembered Sharkey was a carpenter for the public school and even had his own carpentry business.
He said Sharkey was helpful to him and his community.
“He would go on around and get his work orders and doing what he needed to do. Guy was such a craftsman.He helped me at my house so many times like putting a water heater in,” Bresnahan said.
Sharkey loved pranking people.
“When he got to ya, he always rub his arms and hands together and stuff like that,” Bresnahan said.
He would educate other firefighters.
“We would always ask him, this is how we do things in Harford, try it this way and so on,” Bresnahan said.
He would cook for them at the firehouse as well.
“He used to make a killer meatloaf,” Bresnahan said.
He was also a family man.
“He loved his kids. God, he used to talk about his sons all the time,” Bresnahan said.
The funeral service for Sharkey is on Monday at 11 a.m. and will take place at the Cathedral of St. Joseph.
Cayla Cade is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at ccade@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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