Two South Haven firefighters will be honored and remembered at a statewide memorial this Saturday.

South Haven Area Emergency Services says Emil Wessling and Stanley Wakild will have their names added to the Memorial Wall at the Michigan State Firemen’s Association in Roscommon.

Wessling served 38 years of firefighting and EMT service, first with the Casco Fire Department and then as a paid-on-call lieutenant with SHAES. He died in 2010 at the age of 58.

Wakild was part of the fire service for more than six decades. He joined the South Haven Fire Department, later SHAES, in 1965, was promoted to lieutenant in 1978, and served as chief beginning in 1989 until his retirement in 1993. He died in 2020 at the age of 77.

Every year on the third Saturday in September, firefighters from across the state and their families come together to honor the memory the fallen men and women of the Michigan Fire Service.

SHAES Director Brandon Hinz says honoring Wessling and Wakild “is a small token of our appreciation for their commitment to South Haven.”