ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Allentown Fire Academy now bears the name of its former leader who was instrumental in its founding.
City officials and firefighters from around the region honored former Assistant Chief of Training Christopher Kiskeravage as the training center he helped launch was dedicated to him Thursday.
Matt Eharth, the man in Kiskeravage’s former role, unveiled a memorial stone outside the building and a plaque just inside the doors.
“Who he was, what he stood for and what he gave will continue to inspire everyone who walks through these doors."Matt Eharth, Allentown Fire Department assistant chief of training
Those monuments will stand as “a lasting tribute” to Kiskeravage’s legacy, Eharth said.
“Who he was, what he stood for and what he gave will continue to inspire everyone who walks through these doors,” he said.
Kiskeravage died in June 2023 at 56 after a long bout with cancer that he developed on the job.
He served in Allentown Fire Department from 1996 to 2019, including 15 years as assistant chief of training. He became South Whitehall Township’s first full-time fire commissioner after his retirement in Allentown.
Kiskeravage was “not only a visionary, a leader and a passionate educator, but someone whose values, actions and spirit helped shape the very fabric of this place,” Eharth said.
'The ultimate sacrifice'
Kiskeravage led training in Allentown for many years and helped make the training facility a reality. He played a major role as it developed a reputation for intense, detailed training.
His wife, Andrea, joined city officials in August 2023 for an unofficial dedication at the building.
The stretch of Lehigh Street in front of the academy also was named in his honor.
The International Association of Fire Fighters last year added Kiskeravage’s name to its Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“There's only one thing for us to now do: to ensure that the city of Allentown and the state of Pennsylvania acknowledge Chris' death as a line-of-duty [death]."Jeremy Warmkessel, International Association of Firefighters Local 302 president
The memorial features the names of more than 300 firefighters, including many who died from illnesses and cancers linked to their job, as did Kiskeravage.
Kiskeravage donated his body to science “to find ways to make the job safer for all who follow,” his obituary said.
Kiskeravage has been honored numerous times since his death almost two years ago.
“But I think today would have made him the proudest, knowing that every person who walks through these doors, trains on these grounds will continue [his] legacy of firefighting and education,” Jeremy Warmkessel, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 302, said Thursday.
“There's only one thing for us to now do: to ensure that the city of Allentown and the state of Pennsylvania acknowledge Chris's death as a line of duty,” Warmkessel said.
He calld Kiskeravage’s death “his ultimate sacrifice.”
