BOCA RATON, Fla. (The Province.com) - John Elliott lost his brother, firefighter Bill, last week when he fell from a 90-foot aerial ladder. Not only are they brothers by birth, they were both firefighters. John works for the Boca Raton Fire Department not far from Pompano Beach, where his brother was a 29-year veteran firefighter. Bill has served on the dive team, rope rescue unit and, most recently, the hazardous materials squad.
“He was a natural born leader,” John, 48, said of his older brother. “He was the one I looked up to.”"I want to be in the same spot he was, to see what he saw, to think and reminisce,” Elliott told the Sentinel. “It is a step I just feel I have to take.” he told the Sun Sentinel
For John, the grief is compounded by concern for his mother. Joanne Elliott, 72, suffered what may have been a heart attack after she was rushed to North Broward Medical Center on Friday to see her son. On Tuesday she was in Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale.
Soon after John returns to work next week, he will go to Pompano Beach Fire Station 61 with his crew and climb the ladder as a memorial to his brother.
While Elliott and his sister Mary-Beth Williams prepare for Friday’s funeral, scores of relatives, friends and fellow firefighters flowed through the house the brothers shared in a continuing wake that pays tribute to a man lauded as an exemplar of his perilous profession.
Fire trucks from Pompano Beach, Boca Raton and Lighthouse Point — where both brothers began their careers — are parked in front.
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