Scholarship for son of fallen DC firefighter.

Read the entire 204-page report from the October 24, 1997 fire at 400 Kennedy Street, NW

Washington Post Article on Brian Carter’s scholarship

Both the TV station where I used to work and The Washington Post covered a story yesterday that has a lot of meaning to me. It is about a special scholarship for a young man I met in during an enormous tragedy in his life. It was in 1997 when he was just eight-years-old. Brian Carter is the son of John Michael Carter, a newly appointed sergeant with the DC Fire & EMS Department who died in the basement of a burning grovery store at 400 Kennedy Street, Northwest.

The TV report runs an excerpt from a story I have often cited as one of the most memorable of my career. The reason is Brian’s mom, now Debbie Carter Ketchum. Going through my friend Kenny Cox at IAFF Local 36, Debbie contacted me two days after the fire wanting to tell the story of her husband. And did she tell it. As I have said many times, we should all be so lucky to have someone speak so elequently about us after we are gone. Here is more on the scholarship from WUSA9.com:

Twenty-year-old Brian Carter is the recipient of The Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship, a fund dedicated to family members of public servants fallen in the line of duty.

Carter will be a junior this fall at Salisbury University. His father, John Carter, a DC firefighter died fighting a 3-alarm grocery store blaze in Northwest DC on October 24, 1997. Carter fell through a weakened floor.

“[The scholarship] keeps the memory alive. He’s not here, but he’s still helping out and providing,” Carter says.

Carter says he usually does not like the spotlight, but he had to come to the District Fire Station to show his appreciation.

His mother, Debra Carter Ketchum, is all smiles as she sees her son as one of 23 recipients nationwide of this scholarship this year.

“I’m just so proud of him,” she says. She had told Channel 9 two days after the fire, how she had to break the news to her then 8-year-old son, that dad “had gotten into a terrible accident.”

Carter says even though he’s a finance major, he entertains the idea of working in the fire department. His grandfather and uncle are also firefighters.