William Willette was born January 5, 1892 and joined the Ottawa Fire Department on August 12, 1918 Firefighter William J. Willette joined the Ottawa Fire Department on August 15, 1918. He was 35, married and had three children

The Funeral

On Thursday May 22 a double civic funeral was held at Fire Station 2 after private funeral services at each man's home.
Thousands of citizens of all ages passed by the two coffins as they lay in state in the fire station for four hours before the civic service began.
After the service the two caskets were placed on the hose beds of pumper trucks while the fire bell cut through the silence sounding a "six" and "six" again. Sixty-six was the alarm box number that had sounded that Monday morning, calling the two firefighters to their fate.
The funeral cortege proceeded through the downtown streets crowded with concerned citizens, past the Parliament buildings where the Carillon in the Peace Tower played sombre music. The cortege separated outside the downtown core with the procession for Captain Pratt going to Merivale Cemetery and that of firefighter Willette to Beechwood Cemetery.
One prominent person seen at the fire station paying his respects that day was the Prime Minister of Canada, W. L. Mackenzie King.