Surrey firefighters are laying one of their own to rest, after his line of duty death.
Surrey Fire Capt. Randy Piticco died on Dec. 22 after a battle with presumptive lung cancer.
Piticco, 61, had worked for the Surrey Fire Service for 32 years, and had since retired.
The Langley man’s passing is deemed a line of duty death, as it has been determined by WorkSafe BC to have been attributed to his years in the fire service.
A funeral service will be held Sunday, Jan. 24 at 3 p.m. at the Bell Performing Arts Centre.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made “In memory of Randy Piticco” to the Langley Community Support Groups Society — Hope After Stroke, which has been run by his wife Marilyn for two decades out of the Walnut Grove Community Centre.
For online donations, Surrey Fire Fighters’ Charitable Society will accept donations and redirect them to Hope After Stroke: www.surreyfirefighters.com/donate/.
In October, Piticco’s Surrey firefighting ‘brothers’ sent him and Marilyn in a limo to the airport and to fly first class to watch the Blue Jays play Game 4 of the MLB championships.
Firefighters had already fixed up a broken deck at their house.
In early October, Marilyn threw Randy a surprise birthday party that her young neighbour filmed and put on YouTube. By then Randy was too sick to have people over.
So Marilyn asked a few of her neighbours to show up on the front lawn and sing Happy Birthday.
The video went viral because of how touching it was.
— with files from Monique Tamminga