jmonahan@telegram.com
State’s fallen hailed in unveiling of firefighter memorial
BOSTON— The six Worcester firefighters who sacrificed their lives fighting the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire on Dec. 3, 1999, were given a special honor last night as the state dedicated a new memorial to all of its fallen firefighters at the Statehouse.
The six heroes of that fire were honored with a presentation of plaques bearing Worcester Fire Department patches that were flown 5.5 million miles in a NASA space shuttle last year.
James Dumont, commander of the Kennedy Space Center Fire Department Honor Guard, himself the son of a Worcester firefighter, presented Mary Jackson, widow of Lt. Timothy P. Jackson, with one of the plaques bearing his name in a small ceremony in Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray’s office.
Mr. Dumont, a Worcester native whose late father, James Dumont, retired from Engine Co. 13 in 1997 and died in 2001, organized the NASA tribute and made the presentation along with four other members of the Space Center Honor Guard who traveled to Massachusetts.
Five similar plaques, bearing the fire department patch, an American flag, signatures of the Atlantis space-shuttle crew and the director of the Kennedy space center, James Kennedy, were also delivered to local officials to give to the families of the five other firefighters who died in the warehouse tragedy.
Worcester Fire Chief Gerard A. Dio accepted a seventh plaque on behalf of the department.
The presentation came as thousands of firefighters and their families gathered to dedicate the new Massachusetts Fallen Firefighter memorial in Ashburton Park, next to the Statehouse.
The memorial honors all the state’s firefighters who have died in the line of duty and those who have spent their careers fighting fires.
The memorial includes a life-sized bronze stature of three firefighters in full gear and posed in firefighting positions at the center of a large circular memorial.
The memorial also features a silver firehouse bell and a marble monument engraved with the Firefighter’s Prayer.
Bricks around the statue and the sitting stations within the memorial are engraved with the names of fallen firefighters.
Two bricks on the north side of the monument carry the names of Worcester Fire Lts. Thomas E. Spencer, Jackson, James F. Lyons, Firefighters Joseph T. McGuirk, Paul A. Brotherton and Jeremiah M. Lucey, the six who were trapped in the mazelike interior of the building during a search for homeless people believed to have been inside at the time of the enormous fire.
Mr. Dumont, who attended the 1999 memorial service in Worcester, said he was so moved by the bravery of the men and the thousands who marched in their memory that he worked to have the patches flown in space in their honor.
He said he also formed the first honor guard for the Kennedy Space Center Fire Department after the Worcester tribute.
“I remember all the people who marched that day and lined the streets and the little children saluting,” he said.
Mr. Dumont said it took years of lobbying and phone calls, by himself and fellow Kennedy Center Firefighter Charles E. Stephenson, as well as some help from U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., to get the patches into space.
The effort was further delayed with the grounding of the space shuttle missions after the explosion of the Columbia shuttle on re-entry in February 2003, claiming the lives of seven astronauts aboard.
He said that during the course of his effort, he emphasized Worcester’s many connections to the space program, including the city’s being home to the father of modern rocketry, Robert H. Goddard, the manufacture of space suits by the David Clark Co., and WPI professor and astronaut Albert Sacco, who flew on the space shuttle in 1995.
“I’m nearly speechless,” Mrs. Jackson told Mr. Dumont after giving him a long hug.
“I’m so happy that I got to meet you. It meant so much to me to do this,” Mr. Dumont said.
“I’m so happy that you did, too. It’s going to have a place of honor in my house, and it is going to always stay there,” Mrs. Jackson said.
“I have just the spot for it. It’s going to be in the hallway, so everyone that comes in will see it,” she told him.
During the ceremonies unveiling the Fallen Firefighter Memorial earlier, officials recalled the Worcester warehouse tragedy, the 343 firefighters who died in the terrorist attacks six years ago yesterday, and the most recent deaths of two firefighters who died in Boston fighting a restaurant fire and were buried last week.
Mr. Murray remembered being a first-term city councilor when the warehouse tragedy occurred.
He said people often ask why firefighters would run into burning buildings while others are fleeing and said they explain their bravery, simply saying, “This is what we do.”
Gov. Deval L. Patrick said the memorial was “a long-overdue honor” to the firefighters of the state.
He told the firefighters gathered at the Statehouse for the dedication that the memorial would be “a constant reminder of your daily heroism.”
