WORCESTER—After six brave Worcester firefighters perished in the 1999 Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse fire, city officials and firefighters pledged to “never forget.”
That promise still holds true. Tuesday night city officials and firefighters held a 25th anniversary memorial ceremony to honor the Worcester 6: Lt. Thomas Spencer, Lt. Timothy Jackson, Lt. James Lyons, Firefighter Paul Brotherton, Firefighter Jeremiah Lucey and Firefighter Joseph McGuirk.
They all died in the line of duty responding to a five-alarm fire at the Worcester Cold Storage & Warehouse Co. building on Dec. 3, 1999. They entered the abandoned warehouse to try to save the lives of two homeless people who were believed to be in the warehouse, but unbeknownst to them, they had left.
A sizable crowd gathered at the 25th anniversary memorial ceremony even though the temperature dipped below freezing.
“We say that we never forget and we mean it,” Worcester Fire Chief Martin W. Dyer said after the ceremony. “This community came out for us back then and they’ve come out for us tonight. If you look around, there are generations of firefighters here that had already retired by 1999, that had worked the site, that worked in the department in 1999. There are children of those firefighters here today. It just goes through the generations and really means that promise has been kept and we always remember the sacrifice they made.”
Dyer has attended each of the 25 memorial ceremonies the city has held for the Worcester 6 and he was impressed with the number of people who showed up on Tuesday night.
“I think the 25th year really means something to a lot of people,” he said. “I think it brings back a lot of memories. You have departments from around the state who are here who were part of the recovery and us getting back together.”
Ronald DeFusco, 84, was district chief in 1999 and he was among those who entered the warehouse in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the fallen firefighters.
“It does still haunt me,” he said. “It hurts, but you put it aside.”
DeFusco attended the ceremony Tuesday night and he said he had met with some sons of the Worcester 6.
“They’re crying, still,” he said. “It’s a little emotional to know that [despite] all the efforts, sometimes you don’t make it.”
The ceremony was held outside of the Franklin Street Fire Station, which opened on Nov. 19, 2008, on the site of the former Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse building.
The Worcester Fire Brigade Pipes & Drums and firefighters from across the state processed down Franklin Street under an American flag hung from the bottom of the Route 290 overpass and then in front of the fire station.
The Worcester Fire Department and city officials gathered outside the station for the striking of a memorial box, the placing of a wreath in remembrance of each of the six firefighters, and a 21-gun salute. Then bagpipes played Amazing Grace.
Dyer, Mayor Joseph M. Petty, Chair of Public Safety and City Councilor Kathleen M. Toomey and City Manager Eric Batista spoke at the memorial ceremony.
Father Jonathan Slavinskas, Worcester fire chaplain and pastor at Our Lady of Providence Parish, opened the ceremony with the invocation and closed it with the benediction.
Memorial ceremonies have been held on Dec. 3 every year since the fire. Tuesday’s ceremony began at 6 p.m., the same time that the five-alarm fire began 25 years ago.
“It takes a special kind of person to be a firefighter,” Batista said, “to run into the danger that others are running from to save lives. Thomas, Timothy, James, Jeremiah, Paul, and Joseph showed their courage and valor that fateful day in 1999 and every day prior when they put on their uniforms. They set an example that inspired the next generation of Worcester firefighters and will inspire generations to come.”
Petty was a city councilor and chair of Public Safety in 1999, and he has attended the memorial ceremonies every year since.
“They haven’t forgotten,” Petty said. “You can tell by the turnout here tonight that the city of Worcester remembers.”
Petty said many people remember where they were on the night of Dec. 3, 1999, when they heard about the devastating Cold Storage and Warehouse fire. Petty said he remembers the scared looks on the faces of his wife and young children when they arrived at home after driving on Franklin Street near the fire. While watching news flashes about the fire on television, he received a call from the police department to inform him that two firefighters had died and four were missing. When he arrived at the scene of the fire that night, wives of firefighters asked him if their husbands were OK. It was devastating.
“More importantly,” he told the gathering, “I remember how this community came together. The City of Worcester, the state of Massachusetts and the country came together to support our fire department. It’s with this in mind that we gather here this night on the spot where these six great men gave their lives.”
“It was a sacrifice born out of love for their community,” Batista told, “and a commitment to save their fellow human beings in the face of danger. We will never forget what they did in the service of the Worcester Fire Department and the City of Worcester.”
Batista also thanked the current members of the Worcester Fire Department for risking their lives to protect life and property.
Batista said that while 25 years have passed since the Worcester 6 made the ultimate sacrifice, missing them remains part of the daily reality for their family and friends.
“These men have been missed at the big moments like weddings, graduations, and birthdays,” Batista said, “and the small moments like bedtimes, soccer games, and family dinners. Their children, many barely teenagers or younger when the fire hit, now have children of their own. To the families and loved ones gathered here tonight, I extend my
love and support.”
Seven sons of the Worcester 6 have joined the Worcester Fire Department as firefighters: Brian, David, Michael, Steven and Timothy Brotherton, Danny Spencer and Jerry Lucey III. Some attended the ceremony.
“Although they can never be replaced,” Batista said, “the impact these men had is clear throughout the department and in their own families, with many relatives choosing to follow in their footsteps and join the department as well.”
The fire began when the two homeless people knocked over a lit candle. The building’s insulation was highly flammable and there were no firewalls or fire doors. The loss of six firefighters in the Cold Storage fire led to several changes to firefighting practices to promote safety.
“The events of that night also shaped policy for firefighters nationwide,” Batista said, “meaning their sacrifice is helping keep current firefighters, including their children, safer.”
“We all knew someone or were related to someone,” Toomey said, “or a friend of a friend who was impacted by the loss of our heroes. It is Worcester after all. We have little to offer other but a shoulder to cry on, to give a hug or just listen. We were joined by hundreds and thousands over those dark days, those days when the sun did not rise and our collective hearts were shattered. The world felt it, they came from everywhere.”
A three-day exhibit at Union Station of the fire and the Worcester 6 will conclude Wednesday. It will be open from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
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