Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - More than a week after the fatal fire at 745 Main Street that killed Buffalo Firefighter Jason Arno, services for the 37-year-old are set to begin Thursday and extend into Friday.
Thursday will be the public wake for Firefighter Arno at the Amigone Funeral Home at 1132 Delaware Avenue. Calling hours will be held for relatives and friends of Arno from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST.
According to a funeral director with Amigone, they are expecting anywhere from 1,500-to-3,000 people to walk through the doors of the funeral home on Thursday. However, they feel confident they are very well-equipped to handle large amount of calls.
Among the number of people expected to be in Western New York this Thursday and Friday includes a number of volunteer and professional firefighters from not just locally, but also from around the country and internationally. The City of Buffalo estimates anywhere between 3,000-to-4,000 out-of-towners will make the trek to honor Firefighter Arno, with more than 1,000 of those people being firefighters and other first responders.
"Clearly, firefighting is a brotherhood and a sisterhood. It's a calling," said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown during a press briefing on Tuesday at City Hall. "The outpouring of support from fire departments, nationally and internationally, certainly is very comforting. To have that many people traveling to our community to pay their respects to hero firefighter Jason Arno means a great deal to our fire department, our city and certainly to the family."
"With the amount of people coming in from out-of-town and firefighters on duty coming to the wake with apparatus and in-and-out, it's gonna be quite a production," added Vincent Ventresca, President of the Buffalo Professional Firefighters Local 282. "We're going to have a lot to do on Thursday during the wake."
As it pertains to the wake on Thursday, it is recommended that unless anyone has a close tie to Firefighter Arno or this particular situation, it may be best for people who wish to pay their respects to do so on Friday during the procession either from the funeral home to Saint Joseph Cathedral, or from the church to Forest Lawn Cemetery.
With Firefighter Arno's family consenting for the services to be televised, Mayor Brown also says the public can show their support and pay their respects through seeing the services on television.
"As has been mentioned, there are GoFundMe pages the community has been very supportive of those. Obviously, firefighter Arno was recently married, has a young child, so that will be helpful to to the family," said Mayor Brown. "I can't say enough good things about the outpouring of support from Buffalo and Western New York. We are recommending that people who will be out, that want to show their support can also line the streets of the procession route from the funeral home to the church on Friday."
While it may be recommended for members of the general public to pay their respects to Firefighter Arno come Friday, the funeral director at Amigone does say people are more than welcome to come to the funeral home on Thursday and pay their respects. They will not turn anybody away from attending the wake, but they ask that everyone is respectful to the Arno family.
"We just ask everybody to keep the family of Jason Arno in their thoughts and their prayers. This is a very hard time for the family, so we just asked people to mind their distance," the spokesperson said. "If you do want to come in and pay your respects, do so in a very dignified manner, don't try to sit there and speak with a family long. There's gonna be a lot of people coming in-and-out of the funeral home, and just out of respect for the family, just please, please use a dignified manner."
When it comes to Friday's funeral service and procession, Engine 2 will carry Firefighter Arno's casket past Engine 2 at the corner of Virginia Street and S. Elmwood Avenue along the route to Saint Joseph Cathedral.
"The speed of the procession is roughly 10 miles-an-hour, so it will pass by Engine 2. Engine 2's crew and a number of other firefighters will be present and render a hand salute as a tribute to Jason, and then they'll proceed to the rest of the route on the way to the church," as detailed by Fire Commissioner William Renaldo.
After the procession arrives at Saint Joseph Cathedral, there will be likely a two-hour funeral mass for Firefighter Arno before his casket will be transferred back on Engine 2 and taken to Forest Lawn Cemetery straight up Delaware Avenue.
"People can go along the route and pay their final respects to our fallen brother," Ventresca said. "There'll be on duty fire trucks and police along the entire route. If people just want to see him go by and pay their last respects, they can do so."
For Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, he is asking for the public, if they are able to, to line the routes to honor Buffalo's fallen hero.
"Having been to more police funerals and fire funerals and I care to talk about, the one thing in these processions that you see is the amount of people that line the street and pay their tribute and salute, hold flags. That is very supportive to the families and to the fire department, who is suffering through this loss," said Gramaglia on Wednesday. "We would ask that any of the general public, look at the route, line up on the route as the procession is going by, and pay your final respects. It's a meaningful tribute."
For Ventresca, he expects thousands upon thousands of firefighters, law enforcement officials and other first responders lined up along the procession routes, especially on the route heading to Forest Lawn before Firefighter Arno is laid to eternal rest.
"This is a big community when you start talking about all types of first responders who are going to want to pay their respects," Ventresca said. "I think we're going to have quite a lot. So then everyone will line up and be lined up along the route as much as they can. It's going to be an amazing showing for firefighter Arno, who made the ultimate sacrifice."
Firefighter Arno is going to be given full honors from the City of Buffalo, the Buffalo Fire Department, and also his fellow firefighters for the sacrifice he made on March 1, 2023. Ventresca feels the gravity of Friday will certainly be felt by many others in the Western New York community and beyond.
"The way we are now with society and social media and the media, the fact there's all this video, there's all this audio; it was at 10 o'clock in the morning in Downtown Buffalo. So many people saw it and so many people kind of feel a connection to it, I think it's going to be an outpouring," he said. "Then, of course, the same people across the country and in Canada are able to see it too. I just think you're gonna have a big turnout, that's my thought."
