Kenai group memorializes firefighters with mountain
KENAI - The Kenai Firefighters Association is honoring firefighters killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York with a memorial mountain.
The group successfully petitioned the state of Alaska to name a mountain after St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters.
"It may not seem like a real big thing to people, but the response we're getting already tells me a lot of people out there are impressed and appreciate the significance of having a mountain named after the firefighters," Kenai fire chief Scott Walden told the Peninsula Clarion.
The mountain is a little over 4,000 feet tall and is located eight miles west of Mount Redoubt in the Chigmit Mountain range across Cook Inlet. It is visible from Kenai, Walden said.
Members of the Kenai Firefighters Association wanted to make a lasting tribute to the lives lost, Walden said.
The idea to name a mountain in honor of the firefighters was suggested by Walden's father, Ron Walden of Soldotna. Association members waded through paper work and finding the necessary information to submit to the Alaska Historical Commission.
"We didn't know how the process works, so we just started looking for a mountain," Walden said.
Along the way, they ran into several regulations and restrictions. The National Park Service frowns on naming a mountain in a national park, Walden said, so firefighters needed to find one that wasn't part of the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.
In addition, there is a five-year wait to name a landmark in memory of person, so rather than name the mountain after a specific victim, St. Florian was chosen to represent all the lives lost.
The Alaska Historical Commission approved the request at its Nov. 14 meeting and forwarded the name on to the U.S. Board of Place Names. New maps aren't printed every year, but Mount St. Florian could appear on area maps within a few years.
A national firefighters publication picked up the Kenai Firefighters Association's success at naming the mountain and Walden has received e-mails from firefighters in several states