March 31--PEABODY -- The thing about fighting fires is that you can have the best equipment in the world and the top professionals doing everything right, and still, people die.
That fact came back loud and clear to the men of the Peabody Fire Department on Wednesday as they heard the news that two Boston firefighters, Lt. Edward J. Walsh Jr. and Michael R. Kennedy, had been killed in a Back Bay blaze. It was a tragedy that echoed Peabody's own loss of firefighter Jim Rice on December 22, 2011, as he worked a fire in a three-unit apartment building on Hancock Street.
"I saw it on the news," said Peabody firefighter Adam Skelton of Wednesday's tragedy. "It's not easy to watch that. I know what most of these guys are feeling."
"There are a lot of similarities," added Peabody Capt. Dan Dean, who expects to see up to 50 of his fellow Peabody firefighters at the wakes and funerals for Walsh and Kennedy. Dean was working with the veteran Rice, a husband and father, on the day he died.
"He was one of the nicest guys in the department. I never heard a bad thing about him. And an excellent athlete," Dean said.
"He was my age," Skelton said, shaking his head.
Rice remains a presence all over the department, his face on posters and bumper stickers, his locker still maintained and memorial bracelets available at the desk. He was the 10th Peabody firefighter to die in the line of duty. The first, John Dorin, lost his life in 1876.
The Peabody crews know pretty much what their Boston colleagues are experiencing, including a visit from CISD, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, a team of chiefs, firefighters and counselors.
After Rice's death, a CISD team visited Peabody. In the days that followed, there was still more counseling for those who wanted it.
But the Peabody firefighters made it clear that while they are aware of the dangers their job presents, they are not daunted by them.
Techniques in the United States differ from those in other countries, Dean said. Instead of fighting a blaze from the outside, our departments are trained to get into the building whenever possible to better ensure that everyone gets out safely.
"Rescue is our No. 1 priority," he said.
The Boston firefighters were trying to save people trapped on the upper floors, Dean said. They went into the basement, hoping to knock down the fire at its source. Instead, with a blaze as unpredictable as the wind, they found themselves trapped.
It's the sort of thing that might make some think twice about this sort of work.
"We all took an oath," Dean said, shrugging.
"You just do it," Skelton said. "You get your job done. ... It can be scary. But that fear's a good thing."
"It's not like the movies," Dean said.
"It's not like (TV's) 'Chicago Fire' where you go in and there's fire all around you," firefighter Brian L'Italien said, nodding.
Instead, Dean said, the smoke is so thick you can't see beyond your oxygen mask. "It's hot, and it's scary."
Firefighters feel an adrenalin rush walking into this sort of situation, L'Italien said. With three years in the department, he paused over a question regarding the sort of person drawn to this work.
"It's somebody who's not going to stand by and wait for things to correct themselves. ... It's something I always wanted to do, and when I started to do it, I wanted to do it even more," he said.
"I love my job," Skelton said.
Pointing to one of his fellow firefighters, Dean said, "If my kids were in my house during a fire, I know he would go in after them."
For firefighters, that statement applies to everyone's kids.
Alan Burke can be reached at [email protected].
Copyright 2014 - The Salem News, Beverly, Mass.
