Run on the Road

Friends & Family Remember Fallen Firefighter
By M.K. Gueterslohmkguetersloh@pantagraph.com

FAIRBURY -- Brian J. Munz was the kind of guy who would stop on his way to a New Year’s party to help shovel snow off an elderly woman’s driveway.

At 14, he was the golf ball king, collecting stray balls from Fairbury Country Club and reselling them. In his teens he started his own business, Big B’s Lawn Care, which grew into a lawn mowing service with more than 40 customers.

At his funeral Saturday morning at First United Methodist Church in Fairbury, the Rev. Charles McDonald said going to college was not for Munz, 24, a Fairbury firefighter.“All he wanted to do was get his hands dirty,” McDonald said.

Munz was with brethren from seven fire departments Tuesday night who were called to fight a two-story house fire in Forrest. State fire officials still aren’t sure how the fire started.“Heroic” is how McDonald described Munz’s actions that night. “He made sure two of his fellow firefighters got out first before the floor gave way,” McDonald said.

Munz was lucky, the minister said, because he lived life fully and with valor.“He knew what was right, and he did it. He knew how to live, and he did it. And he knew how to love, and he did it,” McDonald said. “That is why I say he is lucky.”

Family members and firefighters shared stories about the “good guy who was a little mischievous and always wearing a smile” in a sanctuary filled with more than 400 people. Another 100 stood in the church yard, listening to the service broadcast over outside speakers.

A purple firefighter’s flag draped Munz’s coffin. Scott Runyon of the Pontiac Fire Department rang the firefighter’s bell in a funeral tradition to signify the end of Munz’s service as a firefighter.More than 70 police cars, fire engines, rescue trucks and ambulances from departments all over Central Illinois and Indiana lined up in front of the Fairbury fire engine that carried Munz to Graceland Cemetery.

A four-member honor guard of firefighters from suburban departments in Melrose Park, Franklin Park, Hillside and Lisle stood outside the church as the recessional was led by two bagpipers from the Illinois State Police.

McDonald’s homily quoted Ephesians: “Walk, better yet run, on the road God called you to travel.”“As you’ve heard here today, you didn’t see Brian sitting on his hands,” McDonald said. “He lived life at a full run.”