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Capt. Mike Hogan of Portsmouth, N.H., stands with a ceremonial ax as firefighters enter to pay their respects at the funeral for South Portland firefighter Debra Cole.

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Amanda DeMeule places a rose on the casket of her mother, Debra Cole, during a graveside ceremony Tuesday at Pine Grove cemetery in Kennebunk.

enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Samantha Cole, the 16-year-old daughter of Debra Cole, cradles her mother’s firefighter helmet Tuesday during a graveside ceremony at Pine Grove Cemetery in West Kennebunk.

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Debra Cole, a firefighter and paramedic in South Portland, died of a stroke last week while on duty. She was 40 years old.

 

BIDDEFORD — Firefighters from dozens of communities across the Northeast joined hundreds of Debra A. Cole's family members and friends Tuesday to say goodbye to the fallen firefighter.

Cole, 40, a firefighter and paramedic in South Portland and a volunteer fire captain in Goodwins Mills, died Thursday after suffering a stroke while on duty at the Western Avenue fire station in South Portland.

On Tuesday, her coffin arrived at New Life Church in Biddeford on an antique fire truck. Like other fire and rescue trucks in the procession, its emergency lights were covered with black cloths.

Preceding the truck were two bagpipe and drum corps – one from Maine, the other from New Hampshire – and an escort of motorcycle police from a half-dozen Maine towns.

About 500 firefighters attended the service from towns across Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. A firefighter and a police officer from New York City also were on hand. All wore black bands across their badges.

In addition, about 300 friends and family members were at the service, including Cole's two daughters: Samantha Cole, 16, and Amanda DeMeule, 23, who is also a firefighter.

Cole was described as a dedicated, driven and compassionate person who truly cared about the communities she served.

South Portland's fire chief, Kevin Guimond, noted that almost immediately after being hired as a firefighter, Cole signed up for the intensive paramedic course. That exemplified her embrace of the culture of the city's emergency services team.

"In our department, you can't serve on just one side of the floor – and she thrived as both a firefighter and a paramedic," Guimond said.

Cole loved animals and especially horses, noted Howard Sterling, chaplain for the South Portland Fire Department. Outside, Cole's horse paced nervously and whinnied in the church parking lot as some of her friends tended to it.

Cole's flag-draped coffin was solemnly carried by eight pallbearers from the South Portland and Goodwins Mills fire departments. It was taken to the front of the New Life Church sanctuary, and Cole's two firefighter helmets – one from each department – were placed on top.

Firefighters tend to think of themselves as a fraternity, which was exemplified by the hundreds who turned out for the funeral of someone they had never met, said Guimond.

Despite her gender, he added, Cole "was a brother to all of us."

Paul Salway, who worked the same shift with Cole, humorously said that the talk about how much she cared was lost on him.

"I don't know where all this 'compassion' comes from, because none of it was ever directed at me," he joked. But Salway and Cole were so close, he said, that he knew everything that her daughters had done in the past few years, both good and bad.

After the service, Cole's coffin was put back on the antique truck and the procession passed under a flag draped beneath the raised ladders of two fire trucks. Her coffin was carried to the grave site between lines of firefighters while her two daughters clutched their mother's fire helmets.

Cole was the type of person who knew her funeral would draw hundreds, said Jason Perry, president of the firefighters union in South Portland. But she wouldn't have welcomed the attention.

"I think Deb would tell us, 'Get back on the truck, go back to work,' " Perry said. "Because ultimately, that's how we honor her memory."

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at: emurphy@pressherald.com