A photo honoring a beloved fire captain who was killed in the line of duty five years ago has been found several days after someone removed it from a memorial site on Fourth Street and Atlantic Avenue, according to authorities.
The site is near where Fire Captain David Rosa was shot and killed while responding to a fire at a senior living facility on June 25, 2018. On Friday, firefighters placed flowers at the memorial, which consists of a framed photo on a palm tree, but the following morning, the photo was gone, LBFD spokesperson Capt. Jake Heflin said.
“The fact that someone thought it was OK to remove that—it’s disappointing,” Heflin said.
With no leads about where the photo went, the union that represents Long Beach firefighters turned to Instagram Tuesday afternoon for help finding the picture.
“We are asking for it to be returned to its spot or to a local fire station so we can place it back to remember our brother,” the union wrote.
Still, firefighters prepared for the possibility that they wouldn’t see the picture again, so they ordered a new one Tuesday night just on case, Heflin said.
“We didn’t want to let any more time go by,” Heflin said. “We wanted to get something back up as soon as possible.”
But the plea for help on social media ultimately worked, according to Heflin.
Within a day, someone who had seen the Instagram post found the photo in the bushes near the Westin Hotel on Ocean and Long Beach boulevards and reported it to the police, Heflin said.
As of Wednesday morning, the photo had been returned to one of Long Beach’s fire stations. It will go back up at the memorial site after a few repairs and adjustments are made, Heflin said.
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