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Fallen firefighter honored with procession Friday Downtown

Friday procession will honor fallen firefighter from Merced.

Merced resident Clayton Charles Ogden III, husband, father, Santa Cruz firefighter/paramedic and true hero will be honored with a procession through the streets of Merced Friday afternoon.

Between 2 and 3 p.m. Friday, streets in Downtown Merced and near the Merced County Fairgrounds will be filled with fire trucks as an honor procession escorts his remains from the Stratford Evans Funeral home on B Street to the fairgrounds. There will be some disruptions in traffic as Ogden takes one last ride on a Santa Cruz Fire Department ladder truck.

Ogden died Aug. 1 from cancer at age 47.

The late firefighter received the Medal of Valor from the City of Santa Cruz for his actions on Feb. 23, 2013 when two police officers were murdered. While responding to the call, gunfire from the suspect erupted and Ogden threw his body on a civilian to protect her from a hail of gunfire at the scene. “Bullets were flying,” Ogden told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “I laid on top of her and told her to keep calm and stay down – don’t move.” Following the shooting, he was part of an initial team training as a Tac-Medic for those kinds of incidents.

Odgen served in the Santa Cruz Fire Department for 18 years. Before working in Santa Cruz, Ogden worked for Riggs Ambulance in Merced. Born and raised in Dos Palos, he started his public service as a volunteer for the Dos Palos Fire Department and was a firefighter for the Merced County Fire Department. He worked for the California Highway Patrol and was in the Emergency Services Unit for the SWAT Team. He leaves behind his wife, Rebekah, and three children, Colby, Sam and Lily. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at Yosemite Hall at the Merced County Fairgrounds, 900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Before the service there will be a procession of fire apparatus and other emergency vehicles to honor the fallen firefighter. It will begin at the Stratford Evans Funeral Home at 1490 B St., go past Fire Station 51 at 99 E. 16th St., go down Main Street from G to M streets, and down Martin Luther King Jr. Way from 16th to 11th St. (See map.)

The family requested: “In lieu of flowers, smell the flowers.”

A scholarship has been set up in his name:

Clayton Ogden Scholarship Fund Merced School Employees Federal Credit Union 1021 Olivewood Dr, Merced CA 95348 Account number 22457–35 in the memo field.

The Santa Cruz Fire Department said expressions of sympathy or condolences for the family can be sent to:

Santa Cruz Firefighters

Local 1716 PO Box 1477 Santa Cruz, CA 95061-1477.

Donations for Firefighter Ogden’s family can be sent to:

Firefighters First Credit Union C/O Clayton Ogden 5700 Stoneridge Dr., Suite 250 Pleasanton, CA 94588


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