A Lehigh County community said goodbye to public servant with a very big heart on Tuesday.
Samir Ashmar, a longtime firefighter and township supervisor in Upper Macungie Township, died Thursday just hours after responding to a medical call.
At Bethany Church on Brookfield Road in Lower Macungie Township, they said goodbye to a giant.
"Sam was one of the greatest men I've ever known," said Grant Grim, Upper Macungie fire commissioner.
Ashmar was everything to this community: a firefighter for three decades, a township supervisor, and to almost all of the hundreds attending his funeral, a friend.
"My brother loved this community so much," said Ashmar's brother, Andy. "He cared about it so deeply."
Ashmar died Thursday night, hours after responding to a medical call. He suffered an apparent sudden heart attack, although the Lehigh County coroner has not determined an exact cause of death. Ashmar was only 51.
First responders from across the region came to Ashmar's funeral just two days before Thanksgiving.
"The fire service is a family, and a closeknit one at that. We have each others' back," said Grim. "Whether it's at the fire scene or personal issue, we are there for each other."
Ashmar's son Josh followed him into the fire service.
"He thought of everyone at the station as a son or daughter to him," he said. "In fact, whenever he disciplined someone for doing something wrong, he would call them 15 minutes later on the phone, on the way back home, and say, 'I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. It's okay.'"
In a cruel twist of fate, it was exactly one year ago that Sam Ashmar buried his own father. No one thought he would follow at such a young age.
Pennsylvania State Fire Commissioner Edward Mann read a poem dedicated to firefighters after September 11th.
"You see, I'm a firefighter and our families are one," he said. "Around the world, a brotherhood of unity -- a closeness of bond most people don't see."
As his family in blood and in brotherhood loaded Sam Ashmar onto the fire truck for one final ride to the station, a community remembered that a firefighter's life isn't measured in flames doused, but lives touched.
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