The fallen, tested: the roll for this ground is zero names

Tested November 2026 against the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation roll

The test, run whole: The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation's Roll of Honor — the national record of line-of-duty firefighter deaths — was searched for every department name this ground has carried: Clay Fire Territory, Harris Township, German Township, and Clay Township in St. Joseph County. No line-of-duty death under any of those names stands in the roll. The count for this ground is zero names, and it is printed as a tested result, with the search shown, not as an assumption: the territory's departments have run structure fires, highway calls and two decades of ALS transport without a name entering the national roll, in the record that roll keeps.

The near name, refused: One NFFF profile touches this ground and is not counted. Adam "Pugsley" Kuspa worked part-time at the Clay Fire Territory — but he was a firefighter of the City of Elkhart, and his profile stands in Elkhart's line, not Clay's.

The honor the department does render: The absence of a roll of its own has not kept the department from the work of the roll. Clay Fire's 2019 annual report records its Honor Guard assisting at five line-of-duty-death funerals and three memorial services in that year, including the 9/11 ceremony at St. Patrick's County Park — other agencies' fallen, honored by a department with none of its own to bury. And the memorial site where an Indiana name would stand, if this ground ever had one, is named for the record: the Indiana Law Enforcement and Firefighters Memorial in Indianapolis, dedicated 6 June 2001, its firefighters' side carried on thirty-three granite panels. No panel carries a name from Clay, Harris or German township in the record reached. The branch's fallen article is a documented negative, count zero, at the size the checklist estimated for it — and it is the best sentence in this section.

Sources:

1. National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, Roll of Honor, searched November 2026 — no line-of-duty death found under Clay Fire Territory, Harris Township, German Township, or Clay Township (St. Joseph County), Indiana. Adam "Pugsley" Kuspa's profile noted and not counted: a City of Elkhart firefighter who worked part-time at Clay Fire Territory.
2. Clay Fire Territory annual report, 2019 (clayfd.com) — the department's Honor Guard assisting at five line-of-duty-death funerals and three memorial services, including the 9/11 ceremony at St. Patrick's County Park.
3. Indiana Law Enforcement and Firefighters Memorial, Indianapolis — dedicated 6 June 2001; thirty-three granite panels on the firefighters' side.