Worcester 6 remembered: 'It could be any one of us'
WORCESTER - Hundreds of members of the community came out Saturday evening to remember the Worcester 6.
“Those guys never got to come home. I got to and to retire,” Paul Joy, who retired as a lieutenant with the Bedford Fire Department, said outside the Franklin Street Fire Station Saturday night. “I come out every year..it’s in my blood.”
Saturday marked the 23rd anniversary of the Worcester Cold Storage & Warehouse fire, when six Worcester firefighters died in a massive blaze at the abandoned warehouse at 266 Franklin St.
As they have in years past, firefighters and members of the public gathered at the Franklin Street Station - built at the site of the deadly blaze - to honor and remember the firefighters who died that day: Lt. Thomas Spencer, 42, and Lt. James Lyons, 34, of Worcester; and firefighters Paul Brotherton, 41, of Auburn; Lt. Timothy Jackson, 51, of Hopedale; Jeremiah Lucey, 38, of Leicester; and Joseph McGuirk, 38, of Worcester. The fallen firefighters are known as the Worcester 6.
On Saturday, fire trucks flashing their emergency lights were stationed outside at 6 p.m. while firefighters lined up and offered a salute as a dispatcher repeated the long-ago call which alerted firefighters to the blaze.
A bass drum from the marching band of bagpipers thumped six times, one for each of the deceased, while the crowd of several hundred stood in silence and then listened to a prayer.
This was followed by the wail of Amazing Grace from the bagpipers.
Finally, family members of the deceased laid wreaths at the Firefighter’s Memorial outside the station and saluted while the bagpipes played “Shenandoah.”
Peter Stone, who retired from the Ashland Fire Department, recalled covering for Worcester at the former Brown Street Station the night of the fire.
“It was just surreal,” he said of that fateful night. He said he comes every year to commemorate the tragedy.
For Raven Arbella, it was her first time at the ceremony.
“It’s nice to see so many people here to support them,” said Arbella, who just moved back to the area from Lake Tahoe. “Past, present and future firefighters.”
Indeed, retired Worcester firefighter Fred Beleanger said there were many new members of the firefighting community that he didn’t recognize, despite retiring just a few years ago.
“Looking around, there’s a lot of new guys unfamiliar to us retired guys, a lot of families,” Belanger said. “I don’t know any other department that has so many people come out.”
And Belanger vowed to return every year.
“It’s the job,” Belanger explained. “We remember. It could be any one of us.”
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester 6 remembered on anniversary of Cold Storage Warehouse fire
