ROGERS, Ark. — Around 100 fire trucks and emergency vehicles from all across Northwest Arkansas joined in a procession for Rogers Fire Captain Mike Cerasale who died last week after a sudden medical emergency while off duty.
The procession started at Rogers Fire Station 2 and ended at the Centerton Fire Department where a service was held for him.
“Being on multiple volunteer departments through his career and spending a long time with Rogers, he was very decided to the people and his brothers and sisters in the fire service,” said Chief Matt Thompson.
Cerasale served on the Rogers Fire Department for almost 23 years and was promoted in captain in 2009. He was also the division chief of training at the Centerton Fire Department for almost eight years when he was off-duty from Rogers.
Over the years he also volunteered for several other departments. He was previously the director of the Northwest Arkansas hazardous materials team which is a regional effort between the counties and cities in NWA.
Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins says most importantly Mike was an all-around good guy, a great father and someone they all called a friend.
“These are firefighters that work together for 48 hours at a time and end up spending about a third of their life with the people they share their career with, so when you hear people call firefighting a brotherhood or a sisterhood, that’s not rumor, that’s accurate to how we feel,” Jenkins said.
Firefighter Austin Bray says he is really going to miss his captain and he learned a lot from him.
“He would have anyone’s back any day of the week no matter what time it was," Bray said. "We are really going to miss that about him. He had a really big personality. It’s just going to be a big gap to fill and whoever takes his spot next on engine two, they really got really big shoes to fill."
Jenkins says Mike was a fun, boisterous guy and they hope with the procession that he goes up with the big style that he lived. He says other Northwest Arkansas departments not only joined in the procession, but they also ran Rogers fire calls for them.
“It’s really teamwork on a lot of different levels and it’s something we’d reciprocate, and we have reciprocated under certain circumstances, so it just shows the spirit of togetherness we have in this business, especially in Northwest Arkansas,” Jenkins said.
The Rogers Fire Department says today’s procession was the longest procession for a firefighter in the city and it was the most attended.