'We don't ever want to forget': Milwaukee Fire Department remembers those fallen in the line of duty

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It was a solemn morning Wednesday, Oct. 8, as the Milwaukee Fire Department remembered the men and women who gave their life in the line of duty.

Dozens of current and retired firefighters came together for the 29th annual Fallen Firefighter Memorial.

Etched into the memorial at Milwaukee Fire Department Headquarters are 144 names of Milwaukee's fallen firefighters.

The memorial is more than remembering those who paid the ultimate price.

"I was a 13-day newborn with my twin, so I never really met him," said Kate Nell Nitschke.

Kate Nell's father, firefighter Walter Nell, is among the names on the memorial.

"It's a memory that we don't ever want to forget, and we never know what one might be walking into when people are leaving a burning building, said Nell.

For the last 29 years, this event has become her way of paying tribute to her dad.

"To represent our family, to represent the fallen and the families that are left behind and it's very special," Nell explained.

Milwaukee Fire Department Chief Aaron Lipski says it's a time for his team reflect.

"There are folks who lost fathers', brothers', sisters' mothers' because those people chose to give their lives to something bigger than themselves," said Lipski.

He says while the department is seeing fewer deaths in recent years, a firefighter's job is getting more difficult.

"We are seeing rapid changes in what people think are important as far as how to make building safe how to construct a building in a safe matter. We are left to handle the aftereffects of that," Lipski explained.

Nell has spent her life living with those aftereffects.

"It's really fractured the family in a day in the age where you couldn't talk about the pain so that pain is hard to face," said Nell.

This memorial service falls in the middle of a weeklong Fire Prevention Week put on by the Milwaukee Fire Department.

On Thursday, MFD Station 26 will go to a nearby neighborhood and check on smoke alarms and install new ones if needed.