Firefighter Corey Ankum laid to rest

CHICAGO | Firefighters from as far away as Seattle and Washington, D.C., converged Thursday on the South Side to pay tribute to Chicago firefighter Corey Ankum, a former Lynwood resident who was killed last week while on duty.

Funeral services for Ankum, 34, were held at the Apostolic Church of God, 6320 S. Dorchester Ave., with a main chapel, auxiliary chapel and banquet hall set up to seat a combined 6,000 people. Each of those rooms was packed to capacity, with many firefighters forced to stand in church hallways or wait outside the building in the wet, wintry weather.

Ankum died Dec. 22 along with firefighter Edward Stringer when the roof and walls collapsed on a former laundry on the Southeast Side where a fire had been extinguished. Firefighters were searching the structure to see if any homeless people had been using it as shelter at the time of the fire.

Although his family no longer lives in Lynwood, Ankum lived there when he was a teenager. He is a 1994 graduate of Thornton Fractional South High School in neighboring Lansing, where he was a multisport athlete who went on to play basketball for Malta, Ill.-based Kishwaukee College and Kendall College in Chicago

Firefighters from every firehouse in Chicago were present Thursday, as well as colleagues from several dozen suburbs across the Chicago area. There also were firefighters who came from Indianapolis, South Bend, Milwaukee, East St. Louis, Ill., and the Missouri-based Lake Ozark Fire District.

Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Robert Hoff said the crowd was evidence of how strong the professional calling was for Ankum.

"We are all better for having him in our department. We are all lesser for his loss," Hoff said.

The end result of so many uniformed firefighters was a main chapel at the church where about two-thirds of the crowd was uniformed blue, and where the Rev. Louis Jones quipped at one point, "Is anybody on the job?"

Among the dignitaries in attendance were the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Cook County Commissioner Bill Beavers and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

Ankum's wife works as a secretary to Mayor Richard Daley, who helped eulogize the fallen firefighter.

While getting choked up and fighting back tears at one point, Daley said Ankum's death was a loss to the entire city of Chicago because of his devotion to serving the public.

"Every time I spoke to him, he would tell me, ‘I love the Fire Department'," Daley said, adding that Ankum was the kind of person who truly deserves to be described as a "hero."

Daley said, "Let's not ever forget that Corey devoted his entire life to protecting us."

Officials from both the local and national chapters of the International Association of Firefighters presented Demeka Ankum with a gold Medal of Honor.

Union Local 2 President Tom Ryan said he sympathized with Demeka and the couples' three children, Demia, Baylee and Torey, telling them, "You will have to make sense of something that really makes no sense at all.

"The only condolence I can offer is to say, you are not alone," Ryan said.