Comprehensive: NIOSH Releases Findings on Worcester Warehouse Fire
GEORGE B. GRIFFIN
Courtesy Telegram & Gazette
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's long-awaited report on the Worcester Cold Storage fire is the talk of the city.
It has been published on the NIOSH Web page and made available to the media. Officials such as City Manager Thomas R. Hoover and Fire Chief Dennis L. Budd, along with members of the families of the six firefighters who died in the blaze, have received copies.
Yet rank and file Worcester firefighters on duty yesterday had little to say about the document. The reason was simple: They hadn't seen it, for it had yet to be sent to fire stations around the city.
Even firefighters who were not on duty and had access to the Internet, or who had managed to obtain written copies, were unanimous in preferring not to discuss it publicly.
One veteran firefighter summed up the feelings of many who were contacted by the Telegram & Gazette.
"Anything I'd have to say about it would be my personal feelings," the firefighter said. "I haven't had an opportunity to go over it in detail, so I wouldn't be able to talk about it."
District Fire Chief Walter C. Giard, who directs firefighter training, said copies of the report were being made and would be distributed to all Worcester fire stations as soon as they were available. The officers and firefighters should have the reports by today, he said.
But even then, it is highly possible that many of the men will decide to keep their feelings to themselves.
James F. Lyons, the father of Lt. James F. Lyons III, one of the six who died in the Dec. 3 blaze, said that reading what NIOSH had to say was very difficult.
"It was like going back to Dec. 3," Mr. Lyons said.
Reading the report and the recommendations, he said, brought up many painful memories and emotions.
And he noted that emotion was something that was absent from the dry and professional language used by NIOSH.
Mr. Lyons went on to question whether the report also should have included assessments of the emotional state of firefighters who are caught in a life-and-death situation, and whether such an assessment might lend itself to improving firefighting techniques.
It is a debate, he said, that has been current within the Lyons household.
"That building I know was a maze, and once they got in there I suppose they lost their sense of direction," said Robert E. Spencer, the father of Lt. Thomas E. Spencer.
Added Mr. Spencer: "I know they tell you all this, but the bottom line is it's no one's fault. The whole thing is, let's not let it happen again. But once the horse is out of the barn, you can't put the lock on it."
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