Multiple EMS providers in Butler County will participate this weekend in PA EMS Weekend of Remembrance activities to honor EMS providers lost in the line of duty, including a Butler Ambulance Service EMT who died in 1983.

Thomas Burnatosti died July 17, 1983, after a vehicle collided with his ambulance while he was caring for a patient being transported from Butler Memorial Hospital to a Pittsburgh hospital. His name, and 84 others, will be read and added to the list of line-of-duty deaths Monday, Sept. 14, at the 16th annual PA EMS Memorial Service at 11:30 a.m. at Heinz Memorial Chapel at the University of Pittsburgh. An honor guard reception will precede the service at 11 a.m.

Vern Smith, the retired paramedic who nominated Burnatosti, responded to the ambulance crash that day.

“Tom was a jolly, joyful giant of a man,” Smith said.

Burnatosti was one of Smith’s former students. They had served together at the Greenwood Village Volunteer Fire Department, which became part of the future Butler Township Volunteer Fire District in 2014.

Smith said Burnatosti was in his 20s when he died. He was working part time as an EMT after being laid off. In one more week, he would have celebrated his first wedding anniversary with his wife.

It was a Sunday right after a downpour when the crash occurred, Smith said. Burnatosti had already been extricated by firefighters when Smith arrived to assist.

Burnatosti was coherent following the crash and was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital to be flown to a Pittsburgh hospital, but he died.

Smith explained that’s the risk every first responder takes when they step into an emergency vehicle or situation.

Monday’s memorial service will be preceded by a memorial bike ride from Johnstown to Pittsburgh beginning Saturday morning. On Monday, the cyclists will depart Station Square at 8 a.m. and be escorted by the Pittsburgh EMS Motorcycle Unit through the city to Heinz Memorial Chapel.

Harmony EMS staff Lynn Curl and Brenda Grinnell, Sarah Scheck from Cranberry Township EMS, Zane Grimm of Slippery Rock EMS and Nico Soler, the prehospital business development specialist for AHN LifeFlight, will participate in the bike ride.

Solar said he had been participating in the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride each year since 2017, and it was time to participate in the state memorial bike ride.

On Sunday, EMS personnel around the state will gather at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott for the 19th annual PA EMS Stars of Life Award Banquet.

“Our EMS providers are often overlooked in their day-to-day lives,” said Doug Garretson, chair of the Pennsylvania EMS Provider Foundation. “We share a solemn obligation to honor and remember our Pennsylvania EMS providers who made the ultimate sacrifice serving the residents of this commonwealth.”