Thousands of people gathered in Baltimore to commemorate three fallen firefighters who were killed while fighting a deadly blaze in the city a week ago.

The memorial for the fallen firefighters took place at Baltimore’s convention centre, drawing crowds in the thousands not just from Baltimore, but from Chicago, Detroit, California, Canada and France, according to The Baltimore Sun.

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“Just after 6 a.m. last Monday in the dark and the searing cold, when the call came in, Paul, Kelsey, Kenny — who were on shift that day — did what they had always done, what they were trained to do, what they loved to do. They said: ‘Send me’,” said a tearful Larry Hogan, the Governor of Maryland, at the memorial.

Edward Kelly, the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, also attended the memorial and recounted the heroic deeds of the three deceased firefighters, saying, “They were told that somebody — some resident of West Baltimore that they had never met — was in danger of dying. And they decided that somebody was worth dying for.”

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“To lose one member of the BCFD family is a terrible tragedy, but to lose three is almost unbearable,” added Fire Chief Niles Ford and thanked all those who had showed up to grieve the death of the three firefighters “as a family.”

A massive fire broke out at a rowhouse in southwest Baltimore on January 24, one of its deadliest in history, prompting a quick response from the firefighters. However, the situation soon went sideways after the abandoned building collapsed, killing firefighters Kelsey Sadler, Kenny Lacayo, and Paul Butrim, and leaving another firefighter, John McMaster, hospitalised. McMaster was later released after recovering.