March 28--The people of Boston -- from children clutching homemade cards to Cardinal Sean O'Malley -- made their way by the hundreds in a daylong pilgrimage to a Boylston Street firehouse turned makeshift shrine, as the investigation into the line-of-duty deaths of Lt. Edward J. Walsh and Michael R. Kennedy got underway.
"It underscores the reputation of these men to put their lives at risk and to make us safe," O'Malley said, after delivering words of comfort to the castle-like station, where black bunting was draped yesterday between leftover strands of colored Christmas lights.
Walsh and Kennedy, who served from the iconic 127-year-old firehouse situated just up the street from last year's fatal Boston Marathon bombings, perished Wednesday afternoon in a nine-alarm inferno that gutted a Beacon Street brownstone. Kennedy, a first responder to the 2013 Patriots' Day terrorist attack, was training to run the marathon next month.
A formal investigation into all factors that contributed to the fatal fire began yesterday, but it could be weeks before the cause of the fire is determined due to the extent of the destruction, Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said.
Late yesterday, with an honor guard of firefighters and police, and extended fire ladders forming an arch overhead, Kennedy's body was moved in solemn procession from the medical examiner's office to the Murray Funeral Home in West Roxbury.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh told the Herald his biggest fears when he took office in January were a child dying from violence, a terrorist attack on the city and losing a police officer or firefighter in the line of duty.
"And now two have happened in just three months," Walsh said. A 9-year-old Mattapan boy was killed last month when his teenage brother accidentally shot him.
Chris Parent, 30, a firefighter from Pawtucket, R.I., drove north to Boston yesterday to place flowers at a growing stack of bouquets, hats, cards and candles outside the garage door where Engine 33 and Ladder 15 left Wednesday on their fatal run. Yesterday, citizens and businessmen, many unable to hold back their tears, tried to fill the void with gifts of comfort food.
"A firefighter is the greatest job in the world," Parent said, despite the terrible risk. "Ever since you're a little kid and you watch them go by in the parade, now you get to ride a fire truck for a living. There's not a better job in the world. You don't have to grow up."
Richard Paris of Boston Firefighters Local 718 had the grim task Wednesday night of telling Walsh's widow and Kennedy's mother their loved ones weren't coming home. Paris said Kennedy's mom "just kept asking me, 'Where's my Michael?' It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, telling a mother she'd lost her son."
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