SUMMERDALE, Ala. — A Marlow-Fish River firefighter, who died in December 2005 while aboard a Search and Rescue boat, was memorialized Sunday in Emmitsburg, Md., along with a hundred other fallen firefighters from across the country.

Chelsea Garvin, 19, died from injuries sustained following the 2005 Fish River Christmas Boat Parade when the boat she and two others were in collided with another boat approximately one hour after the parade.

Garvin, a 2005 graduate of Fairhope High School, along with Dennis Sadler of Foley and Jason Heronime of Fairhope, had been escorting the boats participating in the annual parade on the water that Dec. 10. The three were in a South Baldwin Search and Rescue Boat when the boat collided with another boat.

“It takes a while to get all the paperwork in,” said Fire Chief Gib Hixson of Marlow-Fish River Volunteer Fire Department in speaking of the 27th Annual National Memorial Service during which Garvin’s name and those of other firefighters who died in the line of duty were added to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial, 3,200 names strong.

Members of Garvin’s family and Jason Heronime, whom Hixson described not only as a fellow firefighter but a close friend of Chelsea’s, attended the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service. The event concluded the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial Weekend.

The service on Sunday included the reading of the roll of honor, those being firefighters who died in the line of duty. Family members of fallen firefighters were given an American flag and a rose.

“This is a celebration of life, to honor those who have died,” said Chief Dennis Compton, chairman of the Board of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, in a Web site article relating to the memorial service on Firehouse.com.

Garvin had been a member of MFRVFD for approximately a year and a half when the boat collision took her life. Hixon said at the time that she was a “top student, an exemplary kid.”

A firefighter memorial service was held for Garvin on the steps of St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Fairhope prior to her 2005 funeral service with many area fire departments sending trucks and personnel to participate in the memorial and funeral procession.