It's the Least We Can Do

While most of us were enjoying Thanksgiving day with our families, Steve Solomon was fighting a fire in an abandoned home in Atlanta.

Dozens of firefighters responded to the fire but they were ordered to get out when conditions in the home began to worsen. Everyone got out except Steve Solomon. When the other firefighters realized their fellow firefighter did not get out, they went back in to find him and pulled him from the burning home.


Solomon was rushed to Grady Hospital in Atlanta with third degree burns and other injuries. The other firefighters huddled together at the scene and prayed.

He died six days later.


Solomon was only 33 years old and left behind a wife and four children and a mother and a father.

He had previously been a firefighter at the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department for the past six years. He had been working for the Atlanta Fire Department for only four months.

Make no mistake about it. Firefighters fight together but they come together when tragedy strikes. Each and every time the bell rings they know they are putting their lives on the line. Not everybody has what it takes to do what they do every day.

Steve Solomon’s funeral will be held tomorrow (Monday) at 1PM at the Macon Coliseum. Eighty vehicles of Atlanta firefighters will meet at Turner Field in Atlanta in the morning and will make the journey in a procession to Macon. They will join hundreds of middle Georgia firefighters to honor their comrade and fallen hero.


Snow’s Memorial Chapel in Macon will be handling the funeral service. As they do when any public servant dies in the line of duty, they will offer their services and all merchandise at no charge. The burial will take place at Glen Haven Cemetery. As they do when any public servant dies in the line of duty, their services and merchandise at the cemetery will also be offered to the Solomon family at no charge.

Snow’s Memorial Chapel and Glen Haven Cemetery are part of the Dignity Memorial network of funeral homes and cemeteries that stretches throughout the United States. As part of the Dignity Memorial family, I am very proud of our policy as it relates to the real heroes in life.

Sometimes it is just appropriate for businesses to give back to the community.

In the case of Steve Solomon, a true American hero who sacrificed his life in the line of duty on Thanksgiving day, it is the absolute least we can do.