About 1,000 Honor South Jersey Firefighter At Funeral Service

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, NJ - Nearly 1,000 people turned out to honor a South Jersey woman who was killed on Christmas Day while she was on her way to fight a fire in New Jersey over the weekend. Funeral services for 21-year-old Natalie Dempsey, of Mays Landing, were held at Absegami High School in Galloway Township on Sunday.

Dempsey was small in stature, but large in heart when she stomped into the Mizpah Volunteer Fire Company and announced, “I’m here!” Mizpah Fire Chief Jay Davenport relayed this story to the firefighters, friends and families who assembled in the school’s auditorium on Sunday, according to The Press of Atlantic City.

“I could not be more proud of who she became and who she was,” Dempsey’s uncle and Galloway Police Officer Gary Brenner said, according to the report. “On Christmas, Nat jumped up to answer the call and took off doing what she loved doing. She’s our 5-foot-2 hero.”

Dempsey was killed after she was hurt in a crash while on a fire call, according to police and firefighters. The crash happened at approximately 6:19 a.m. when officers from the Hamilton Police Department responded to Landis Avenue, just west of Estelle Avenue, on a report of a single car motor vehicle crash.

Fire officials told nj.com that Dempsey, who was vice president of the Mizpah Fire Company, was headed to the firehouse to suit up and hop into a firetruck "as she had done so many times before."

Dempsey was operating a black 2001 Honda Accord westbound on Landis Avenue when she lost control of her vehicle and went off the roadway, striking a guardrail, police said. She was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Read more here: South Jersey Woman, 21, Killed On Christmas On Way To Fight Fire

Mizpah Volunteer Fire Company Fire Co. photo.