Thousands of firefighters from the Midwest and Canada came to Chicago this week as the Chicago Fire Department honored two of it's own who had perished in the worst firefighter tragedy this city had seen in a decade.

Edward Stringer, a 12-year veteran, and Corey Ankum, a former cop who’d joined the fire department little more than a year ago, were both searching a smoke-filled abandoned building for vagrants when the roof collapsed, killing the two men and injuring 15 other firefighters.

The tragedy happened on the 100th anniversary of Chicago's Union Stockyards fire, which had been the most devastating loss of U.S. firefighters until the September 11th terror attacks in New York. Memorial services for Stringer and Ankum drew thousands of firefighters from the surrounding suburbs of Chicago and as far away as London, Ontario, Canada. Feeding The Fire's co-host and suburban firefighter Jim Gatesman attended both services.

"We are all here because the Fire Service is a brotherhood and we are paying our respects to two of our brothers who died in the line of duty," Gatesman said.

According to the US Fire Administration there have been 78 on-duty firefighter fatalities in 2010. As this year comes to a close we at Feeding The Fire honor those men and women and send our best wishes out for a safe 2011.