Kentucky Brotherhood Riders visit Zoneton to honor fallen fire battalion chief

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A group of bicycle riders made up of firefighters, police officers, EMS personnel and their families rode to Zoneton on Thursday in honor of a fallen battalion chief.

The Kentucky Brotherhood Riders scheduled a ride to honor Zoneton Fire Battalion Chief Garry Key, who died in Feb. 2021 after a nearly month-long battle with COVID-19.

Key died only a few months after Zoneton Fire’s Chief Rob Orkies, who died in Dec. 2020 after he was diagnosed with COVID-19 while battling Stage 4 cancer.

Riders visited Zoneton to honor Orkies last year, and this year, Key was honored in the ride to Shepherdsville.

“I’m a flight nurse, and we all have lost someone in the line of duty, and we want to honor them,” Kimberly Morgan, rider and first responder said. “There are 21 people this year that we’re honoring. Their names are on the back of our jerseys and T-shirts and stuff like that. We try to meet as many families as we can because people forget.”

The group travels across the state of Kentucky to honor fallen first responders and is scheduled to make various stops, including West Point, Flaherty, Irvington and Cloverport.