SALISBURY, N.C. -- The final alarm has sounded for Justin Monroe and Victor Isler.

As fellow firefighters, family and friends went about the solemn business of returning the two fallen heroes’ bodies to the cold embrace of the earth; complete strangers came out of their homes, businesses and schools to stand in silent support.

One of these strangers moved slowly. He is old and uses a walker to get around. You can tell he was in discomfort and his wife had to prop him up so he could stand at all. But he did stand; hand over his heart, honoring the entire funeral procession as it drove by him on West Innes Street.

I wanted to interview him, ask him why it was so important for him to be here, but his wife told me he wouldn’t speak. He’s embarrassed because he has Alzheimer’s and forgets things.

Today he remembered what it was to be brave, to sacrifice, to be selfless, and he was here to show his respect to the men who gave their lives in the pursuit of those ideals.

He was not alone.

“They went in there to protect us, to help us. They’re heroes…heroes.” That was what David Crisco told his 4-year-old son when he asked why the men died in the fire.

David’s wife, Tasha, is here as well. The whole family came out to show not just respect to the fallen firefighters, but to be here for the families left behind.

“We’ll keep them in our prayers and let them know everything will be OK,… eventually,” said Tasha Crisco.

“They’re our heroes, they were willing to sacrifice their lives for our lives, everyday heroes,” said Susan Rodgers.

She is here with her daughter and her grandson. They stand on the sidewalk outside of Fire Station No. 3, watching the slow line of fire engines, draped in black mourning cloth, roll slowly by.

Rodgers looked at her grandson, who was safe in his stroller, watching the shiny trucks with awe and amazement.

“He’s only two, but he needs to see this. He needs to be here to see it,” said Rodgers.

Another grandmother, Charlene Rivens is here with her grandbaby as well. She has doesn’t know any firefighters and has never personally needed them. Some of her friends, though, had a fire a while back and that connection was enough for her. She said she knows if she had needed them, they would have been there for her – stranger or not.

“This is the American way, supporting people who were there to protect us,” said Rivens as she gazed down the street at the hundreds of other strangers who are all here for the same reason.

There are few things that shake a community to its core more than heroes, pure of purpose, pure of intention, falling while coming to the aid of strangers.

Most people don’t give much thought, on a daily basis, to the silent but ever present heroes that stand ready, waiting for the alarm to sound.

Firefighters are the ones who stand up and say, “I will go. I will save your life. I will safeguard your property. I will protect you.”

When they fall, doing what they promised us they would do, we must honor them.

The final alarm has sounded for Justin Monroe and Victor Isler.

A grateful and saddened community will remember them, Godspeed fallen heroes.