County offices to close Aug. 22 in honor of Thomas Berry

Sussex County government and the community will bid a final farewell to fallen EMS employee and volunteer firefighter Thomas Wilson Berry III, who was tragically lost Aug. 13 while responding to a vehicle crash.

Services for Berry are set for 1 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 22, at Crossroad Community Church, at the corner of State Forest Road and Seashore Highway west of Georgetown. Family, friends and those wishing to pay their respects may call from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church.

Berry, 23, was a logistics technician with Sussex County Emergency Medical Services since 2022 and a volunteer firefighter with both the Ellendale and Georgetown fire companies. He lost his life moments after pulling a motorist from a car that had struck a utility pole along Lewes-Georgetown Highway east of Georgetown.

Berry will be memorialized with full firefighter honors. Following the service, a cadre of first responders and emergency units will escort the fallen hero in a procession to answer his final alarm, making its way from the church to the Georgetown Fire Company, followed by the Sussex County Public Safety Complex and the Ellendale Volunteer Fire Company. Interment will be in the Ellendale Cemetery at Ponder and Cemetery roads, Ellendale.

Due to road closures and expected traffic impacts from the procession, the county administrative offices building on The Circle will close to public business at 12 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 22. The county complex will reopen to the public at 8:30 a.m., Friday, Aug. 23.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to any local volunteer fire company.

Gov. John Carney has ordered Delaware flags to be lowered to half-staff at all state facilities until sunset, Aug. 22, to honor Berry.