CBS News
Inside: What to Expect on Thursday's Broadcast
For the first time on national television, the firefighters who survived one of the most devastating fires in U.S. history break their silence to tell Dan Rather about the tragedy on "Heroes Under Fire," Thursday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m.
For three months, Rather led a 48 Hours team to recount the unforgettable night of Dec. 3, 1999, when a vacant cold storage building in Worcester, Mass., exploded into a raging five-alarm fire. Using rare footage and never-before-heard radio transmissions, 48 Hours pieced together the minute-by-minute progression of how the fire, accidentally started by a homeless couple, claimed the lives of six firefighters. Five widows, 17 fatherless children, fellow firefighters and a nation mourned the loss.
District Chief Mike McNamee says that when they first responded to the scene, Paul Brotherton and Jerry Lucey went inside the warehouse, along with two dozen other men, to search for the couple or anyone else who might still be inside. Within seconds, thick, acrid smoke blinded them and everyone evacuated everyone but Brotherton and Lucey, who were deep inside one of the storage lockers and had radioed that they were running low on air and becoming disoriented.
Four more firefighters -- Tim Jackson, Tommy Spencer, Joe McGuirk and Jay Lyons -- perished when they went back in to look for Brotherton and Lucey. Rather learns that the death toll could have been much higher if District Chief McNamee had not called for an "all out" to evacuate the more than 40 firefighters. With no way to fight the fire, all they could do was watch and prevent it from spreading further.
Also watching that night was the homeless couple. Correspondent Bill Lagattuta has the story of Julie Barnes, accused of starting the blaze. She and her companion, Tom Levesque, faced charges of manslaughter.
