Pancake Benefit To Honor Firefighter Killed In Palos Verdes Fire

PALOS VERDES, CA — Community members are invited Sunday to honor Firefighter Jonathan Flagler, who died after battling a fire in Palos Verdes, and help support the Flagler Memorial Fund.

Los Angeles County Fire Station 83 and local first responders will host a pancake benefit Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to noon at Sirens Java & Tea, 402 W 7th St, San Pedro.

Flagler, 47, a husband and father of two teenage boys, died Jan. 6. He was overcome by smoke and flames while battling a house fire that was reported about 2 a.m. in the 30700 block of Tarapaca Road in Rancho Palos Verdes.

He was pulled from the inferno by fellow firefighters from Fire Station 83, and was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Flagler is survived by his wife Jenny and their sons Brody and Jack.

"He is and always will be my best friend; and there will continually be a hole in my heart that will never fully heal. John was my soul mate, plain and simple," his wife, Jenny, said during his memorial service last month. "It takes some people decades to find the person they're meant to be with. It takes some several tries to find them, and some never do. I am one of the lucky few that found him on the first try. All it took was one date, and I knew he was the man I was meant to spend the rest of my life with."

"I didn't get the rest of my life, but I got the rest of his," she said. "Our time together may have been cut short, but the happiness we shared together will last a lifetime. ... I feel truly blessed by God to have had him by my side for 22 years. ... I will miss John until the day we meet again in Heaven, and so will our boys. But we will never feel alone, because John has left behind a love that cannot be broken."

Proceeds from the grab-and-go event will benefit the Flagler Memorial Fund, which was created in his memory. Donations to the fund can also be made by mail and sent to F&A Federal Credit Union, 2625 Corporate Pl, Monterey Park, CA 91754; "ATTN: Flagler Memorial Fund."