A downtown funeral procession is planned for this Sunday afternoon for Bradenton Fire Chief Mark Souders, who died Wednesday.

Souders' full-honors funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Manatee Civic Center, One Haben Blvd. in Palmetto.

There will be several road closures in the downtown Bradenton area between 12:30-1:30 p.m. Sunday to allow for the procession, fire officials said. At 10 a.m. Sunday, Third Avenue West will close at Third through Ninth streets west to serve as the staging area for fire trucks in the procession.

The procession will leave Griffith-Cline Funeral Home, 720 Manatee Ave. W., at
12:30 p.m. and proceed westbound on Manatee Avenue West, turn left on 9th
Street West and head southbound toward 8th Avenue West, where Bradenton Fire
Department fire trucks will join the procession.

The procession will then turn right on 8th Avenue West and left on 11th Street West, where it will pass the Gene Gallo Central Fire Station, 1010 9th Ave. W., where Chief Souders' office was located. The procession will turn left on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue (Ninth Avenue West), left on Ninth Street West, right on Sixth Avenue West and toward First Street/U.S. 301. Family, co-workers and other personnel will join the procession at this point.

The procession will then proceed north on U.S. 301 toward the Civic Center in Palmetto. The main part of the funeral procession will enter on the east driveway, passing the east side of the Civic Center.

Souders died Wednesday morning at Blake Medical Center after going to cardiac arrest at his Bradenton home.

A viewing will be held Saturday from 2-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. at Kingdom Life Christian Church, 825 9th St. W., in Bradenton.

Flowers may be sent to Kingdom Life, and donations may be sent to the Bradenton FireFighters Association (c/o Bradenton Fire Department, 1010 9th Avenue West, Bradenton, FL  34205) to be held in trust for the Mark L. Souders Memorial Educational Fund.