The Collins Block fire was 71 years ago, but the need to honor the firefighters who died there is ongoing, Syracuse’s fire chief said Wednesday at a memorial service for the fallen.

“With the passing of time, a separation is created between our busy, everyday lives and the events of that horrific day 71 years ago. So we must force ourselves to keep these memories alive,” Chief Mark McLees told more than 150 firefighters, police officers, sheriff’s deputies, dignitaries and family at the city’s annual service at Firefighters Memorial Park on South Townsend Street.

The service, held on the anniversary of the Collins Block fire in 1939, honors the nine firefighters who died when that 223 E. Genesee St. office building collapsed and 36 others who have died serving Syracuse residents since 1841.

“I ask you to imagine that a terrible accident had taken a loved one from you, perhaps a parent or a spouse, maybe even a child,” McLees said. “But to really grasp the enormity of this tragedy, imagine that nine members of your immediate family perished in one single event. Because that’s exactly what happened 71 years ago,” McLees said.

The fire family, he said, “must continually strive to ensure that these brave men are never forgotten.”

Snow fell lightly as McLees and Mayor Stephanie Miner laid a wreath at the foot of the monument erected in the park soon after the 1939 disaster. Retired District Chief Tom Laun read the names of the 45 fallen in a strong, clear voice as another firefighter tapped a silver bell.

The service goes beyond remembering those who gave their lives, Miner said.

“It’s not just the firefighters at Collins Block that we come to remember, but it is indeed everyone who every day gets up with the idea in their mind that today might be the day that they are asked by this community to give up their lives,” she said. “We celebrate their spirits and we say to them every February ... that we recognize the sacrifice that you and your families make on our behalf.”