Firefighter Kevin Sanders, Killed in Texas Plant Explosion, Laid to Rest in Plainfield

If you’ve seen a lot of Superman T-shirts and pins around town this week, there’s a good reason.

Friends and former colleagues of 33-year-old Kevin Sanders are wearing them in honor of their hero, who was among the first responders to rush to the scene when a fire broke out at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, on April 17.

Sanders was among the 15 people, including 10 first responders, killed when the plant exploded.

To the people who remember him in Plainfield, he’s a kind of superman. Sanders, a native of Palos Hills, spent five years working for the Plainfield Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) and was also part of the Plainfield search and rescue team.

Sanders was a member of the Bruceville-Eddy Volunteer Fire Department.

Sanders, who leaves behind wife Sarah and baby son Reeve, was honored with a memorial service Tuesday in Plainfield. Following a funeral Wednesday in his native Palos Hills, he was laid to rest at the Plainfield Township Cemetery.

Read: 

• Online Outpouring of Love for 'Superman' Kevin Sanders
  
• Plainfield Memorial Planned for Man Killed in Texas Plant Explosion

On Tuesday, District 202 board president and longtime PEMA volunteer Roger Bonuchi explained the Superman pin he was wearing during a school board meeting.

“Kevin was a Superman nut,” Bonuchi said, noting that Sanders went so far as to name his infant son after actor Christopher Reeve.

In a eulogy at an April 25 memorial held in Waco, Texas, Kevin’s brother Scott said when he turned 16, he inherited his brother’s fist car — “a 1989 Chevy Celebrity, painted blue with latex house paint and an old paint roller. Emblazoned on the hood was a four-foot-wide Superman logo … You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in the city that we grew up in who had not seen the Superman car flying around town.”

“He was exactly what you would think of when you heard the title ‘volunteer firefighter,’” Scott Sanders said in the tribute. When the call came in that “firefighters need help,” his brother did not hesitate to rush to their aid, Scott said, adding, “[Reeve] will be fortunate to grow up with the spirit of a dad who at his very core was about helping and loving everyone that he encountered.” Click here to view video of his brother’s tribute.

Bonuchi said Sanders moved to Texas after his wife was recruited for a position with the Veterans Administration. “They were enjoying small-town life,” he said.

Many of the attendees at Tuesday’s Plainfield memorial wore Superman T-shirts in honor of their hero. While the memorial was closed to the media, CBS Chicago offered some insight from Plainfield Police Chief and PEMA Director John Konopek.

“I expect that Kevin did exactly what I would expect Kevin to do,” as he rushed to respond to the fertilizer plant fire, Konopek said. “That’s the most difficult part to grasp as now there is going to be a son that that is going to look up to his dad as a hero forever but really not going to get a chance to get to know his dad.”

Sanders was also a certified veterinary tech — and cat lover, according to Bonuchi — and taught vet tech training at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. He had also recently passed his skills test to become an Emergency Medical Technician.

How to help the Sanders family

Plainfield-area residents can make donations directly to the Sanders family in support of his wife, Sarah, and son, Reeve, by going to any Chase Bank branch and asking to donate to the account for Sarah Sanders of Eddy, Texas. Funds will be used at the family’s discretion for future education and other general expenses.

Donations can also be made online via PayPal by using the email address sandersfamilymemorialfund@gmail.com.

Sanders’ family also urges residents to consider donating to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to support the organization, which is helping the family through the tragedy. For more information or to donate, click here.

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