Crime & Safety
Procession of Fallen Arizona Firefighter to Travel Along Cerritos-Lakewood Border Today
The bodies of two firefighters with Southern California roots who were killed while battling an Arizona wildfire will be flown home today for a ceremony in Los Alamitos, followed by a procession to Forest Lawn in Long Beach that will travel along the Cerritos-Lakewood border.
The "Memorial Ramp Ceremony,'' which was being coordinated in part by the California Fire Foundation's Last Alarm Service Team, will be held on July 10 at the Joint Forces Training Base for 21-year-old Kevin Woyjeck and 30-year-old Christopher MacKenzie -- both of whom had local ties.
Firefighters will escort their bodies to mortuaries in preparation for funeral services. MacKenzie will be taken to the Miller Jones Mortuary in Hemet, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, while Woyjeck will be taken to Forest Lawn in Long Beach.
Procession to Travel Along Del Amo Boulevard About 2 p.m. Wednesday
According to the Los Angeles County Fire Department Div 4's Facebook page, the procession will travel on Del Amo Boulevard -- along the Cerritos-Lakewood border.
"As you know there will a Memorial Ramp ceremony for the arrival of Kevin Woyjeck at the Los Alamitos Training Base at 1:00pm today, followed by a procession to Forest Lawn in Long Beach. The route will be Katella Ave to Los Alamitos Blvd, which turns into Norwalk Blvd. It will travel down Del Amo Blvd from Norwalk Blvd to Cherry Ave in LB. Anyone wishing to show their respects should be along Del Amo by 2pm."
The two firefighters were among 19 firefighters with the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew, an elite wildland firefighting unit, who died near Yarnell, Ariz., on June 30 in the worst wildland firefighting loss in the U.S. since the 1933 Griffith Park Fire in Los Angeles, where 29 firefighters were killed.
Woyjeck -- a former Seal Beach resident -- was the son of Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Joe Woyjeck. He was a former member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's Explorer Post 9, and worked with Care Ambulance Service in Southern California.
MacKenzie, who was raised in the San Jacinto Valley, graduated from Hemet High School in 2001. He started his career as a seasonal firefighter with the U.S.Forest Service, and served on the Tahquitz crew in the San Jacinto National Forest. He then served on a helicopter crew for the Bureau of Land Management and the Mill Creek hotshots in the San Bernardino National Forest.
For more information about today's ceremony in Los Alamitos, visit Los Alamitos Patch.
- City News Service Contributed to a portion of this report.
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