Jim Carr had his last ride on a Lawrence fire truck Tuesday.

He rode Engine No. 6, the truck on which he started his career with the department in 1990. The engine was part of a line of fire trucks and cars that stretched down Sixth Street at midday as firefighters paid their last respects to a member of their department.

Colleagues of Lawrence firefighter/EMT Jim Carr salute as his casket is lifted off Engine No. 6 during services for the 11-year veteran of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical. Services for Carr, who died of cancer, were at Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery. Carr was chosen Firefighter of the Year in 2000 by the Lawrence Firefighters Union Local No. 1596.

Carr, 41, served as a firefighter with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical for the past 11 years, until he was diagnosed with cancer last August. He died Friday.

Carr’s colleagues paid tribute to his years of service with a traditional firefighter’s funeral at Corpus Christi Catholic Church and a trip past Lawrence firehouses.

“He was a very caring individual,” said Fire & Medical Capt. Pat Talkington. “One who just loved life, loved his family, loved the Fire Department.”

For his last ride, members of the department lifted his casket, draped with an American flag, onto Engine No. 6.

“We had a procession, and he wanted to go by each station so we all had a chance to say our farewells and honor him and the man that he was,” Talkington said.

The funeral procession stretched more than a mile and a half as it snaked past Station No. 3 at 3708 W. Sixth St., where Carr was last assigned to duty, and past the main fire station at Eighth and Kentucky streets. The procession included trucks from both Eudora and Wakarusa Township fire departments.

Wearing their dress uniforms and with black bands covering their badges, firefighters on duty at the Lawrence stations saluted smartly as the truck carrying the casket inched by.

During Carr’s battle with cancer, firefighters pitched in to help, filling in on his shifts while he underwent surgery and chemotherapy for colorectal cancer that spread to his liver.

Margaret Carr, with son Charlie in her lap, receives the flag from her husband, Jim Carr's, casket from Fire Chief Jim McSwain after services for the firefighter at Mount Calvary Catholic Church. Local firefighters Tuesday drove Carr's casket to the cemetery aboard Engine No. 6, the truck on which he started his career with the department in 1990.

“His shifts were covered by the rest of the firefighters here so he would continue to get a paycheck for his family,” Talkington said. “That was one thing he did not have to worry about.”

Talkington said firefighters also planned to look out for Carr’s family a wife and three children.

Carr was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery after a graveside service that included a bagpipe player and the Fire Department’s Honor Guard.

“This is something we’re not really accustomed to having to do,” Talkington said after the procession passed by Station No. 1. “But everybody came together and did a really good job for Jim and for his family.”