The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee has selected five designs as finalists for a memorial to six firefighters killed in a 1999 warehouse fire. WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) -- The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee has selected five designs as finalists for a memorial to six firefighters killed in a 1999 warehouse fire.
The five plans for the seven-acre memorial honoring firefighters Paul A. Brotherton, Jeremiah M. Lucey and Joseph T. McGuirk, and Lts. Timothy P. Jackson, James F. ``Jay'' Lyons III and Thomas E. Spencer, were selected from a field of 158 submissions.
``I think that every one of them, in their own way, presents an opportunity for the visitor to contemplate what happened on Dec. 3 and for the 10 days that followed,'' said Michael J. Donoghue, president of the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial National Design Competition.
The five finalists, who are all from Massachusetts, will visit the site behind the Grove Street fire station on July 27, when they will be allowed to ask questions of the committee, said Kenneth W. Paolini, consultant to the committee.
All five designs include the names of the fallen firefighters, a description of the timeline of the Dec. 3, 1999 fire at the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Building, and a bridge that will stretch over Salisbury Pond and link the memorial site to nearby Institute Park.
The memorial will be built at a cost of $3 million to $5 million. Institute Park will also receive some improvements.
An 11-member jury selected the five finalists and will announce the winner on Sept. 27.
