(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage building ablaze)
Chief MIKE McNAMEE (District Chief; Worcester, Massachusetts): This fire was a
monster. It was growing by the minute.
Unidentified Woman: The fire is going on so loud I can't hear you too well.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze; Bill McNeil)
RATHER: (Voiceover) In less than hour, a sighting of smoke on the roof of the
Worcester Cold Storage building had exploded into a raging four-alarm blaze.
Bill McNeil, who had reported that a homeless couple might be inside, saw it
all from his diner across the street.
Tell me what you remember.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
Mr. BILL McNEIL: (Voiceover) Explosions. Flames. It just progressively got
worse. I can--I was actually feeling the heat through my windows. I was
scared.
(Footage of firefighters at work)
RATHER: (Voiceover) Yet incredibly, there were 40 firefighters inside the
inferno...
(Graphic on screen: We're running low on air. We want to get out of here.
Unidentified Firefighter #1: We're running low on air. We want to get out of
here.
(Photos of Paul Brotherton, Jerry Lucey)
RATHER: (Voiceover) ...searching for two comrades--Paul Brotherton and Jerry
Lucey--lost inside the building.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
Chief McNAMEE: We were fighting time. And it was getting down to a critical
point at that point.
(Footage of McNamee; Worcester Cold Storage ablaze; graphic on screen: Command
to ladder 2.)
RATHER: (Voiceover) District Chief McNamee was about to see it get even worse.
Unidentified Firefighter #2: Command to ladder two.
(Photos of Tim Jackson, Tom Spencer)
RATHER: (Voiceover) Two more men--partners Tim Jackson and Tom Spencer--were
not responding to radio calls.
Chief McNAMEE: `Ladder 200 to ladder 2.' No answer. I'm listening to this.
RATHER: Trying to make contact with Tim and Tom?
Chief McNAMEE: With--with Tim and Tom. Nothing. And then the fourth or the
fifth call was almost a cry into the radio. `Ladder 200 to ladder 2, answer
me.' We just went, `Oh, my God, there's two more.'
(Photos of Tim Jackson, Tom Spencer; footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
RATHER: (Voiceover) The heavy black smoke was now pouring out of the storage
lockers and into the stairway.
Unidentified Firefighter #3: It was forcing you back down the stairs, you know?
You know, you had to fight your way up.
Unidentified Firefighter #4: We almost got trapped in there.
(Footage of firefighters at work)
RATHER: (Voiceover) As a federal inquiry later confirmed, malfunctioning radios
added to the confusion of the moment.
(Graphic on screen: 200, every time you transmit, your alarm button goes off.)
Unidentified Firefighter #5: Two hundred, every time you transmit, your alarm
button goes off.
(Footage of firefighters at work)
Chief McNAMEE: Now I was asking people every time they came down, `What are
conditions like up there? How bad is it getting up there?' And when this very
experienced lieutenant was coming down with his crew--and he said, `Chief, we
couldn't even make the third floor'--that's when I knew I was--I was--it was
time for a decision.
(Graphic on screen: Command to all companies, stand by the stairwell.)
Unidentified Firefighter #6: Command to all companies, stand by the stairwell.
Chief McNAMEE: I had approximately a dozen firefighters lined up, ready to go
up. I stood in the doorway at the base of that stairwell. I looked at them,
and I said, `That's it. No more.' Some of them started to get vocal and said,
`What do you mean? What do you mean? They're still up there. What do you
mean, no more?' And that's when I said, `Lookit, we've already lost four. We're
not going to lose any more.'
(Footage of firefighters at work)
RATHER: (Voiceover) Then McNamee called for an all-out.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
Chief McNAMEE: (Voiceover) Somebody gets into every fire truck and starts
giving successive short blasts of all the air horns. They hear this, they know
it's bailout time.
RATHER: What was your first reaction when the chief said...
Captain ROBERT A. JOHNSON (Worcester, Massachusetts): I burst into tears, but
then I had to stop and physically restrain some of the men that were with me.
(Footage of firefighters at table; Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
Chief McNAMEE: (Voiceover) It was like somebody had collectively kicked them
all in the stomach. They deflated. Their shoulders slumped, the hands fell,
the heads went down.
Unidentified Firefighter #7: After that final call, the fire just blew right
through the roof.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze; firefighters at work)
Unidentified Firefighter #3: And it just really sunk in that there
wasn't--there wasn't anybody coming out of there.
Unidentified Firefighter #4: We knew there were guys in there, and you didn't
want to leave them in there, but we also realized, too, that the chief was
making the right decision at that point in time.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze; firefighter)
Capt. JOHNSON: I don't know if I would have had the guts to make that call, and
that might have cost this department more lives.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
RATHER: (Voiceover) But the worst was far from over.
(Graphic on screen: Engine 3 to 300, Jay or Joe, call in.)
Unidentified Firefighter #8: Engine 3 to 300 hundred, Jay or Joe, call in.
Chief McNAMEE: The officer of engine three came up to me and said, `Chief, I
can't find Jay or Joe. Nobody's seen them.'
(Photos of Joe McGuirk, Jay Lyons)
RATHER: (Voiceover) Joe McGuirk was last seen with Jay Lyons, the boy McNamee
watched grow up to be a firefighter.
At that point, you thought you'd lost four.
Chief McNAMEE: Four. Now it was six.
(Footage of firefighters at work)
RATHER: Through these moments developing into minutes, what's your interior
conversation?
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
Chief McNAMEE: (Voiceover) You know, you hear the term `have a heavy heart.' I
had the heaviest heart, I felt like a weight hanging in my chest, looking at
that building that night and just knowing that those six were in there. It was
just a horrible, horrible feeling.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze; photos of Julie Barnes, Tom
Levesque)
RATHER: (Voiceover) There was no longer any way to fight this fire. All the
firefighters could do was keep it from spreading and watch. Also watching that
night was the homeless couple the firefighters had gone looking for. Julie
Barnes watched it from the window of a friend's motel room, Tom Levesque, from
the street. Word of the fire spread quickly through Worcester.
Unidentified Anchor: (From news report) Two Worcester firefighters are
confirmed dead tonight and at least two more are missing.
(Photo of Jerry Lucey)
RATHER: (Voiceover) Michelle Lucey was at work...
(Footage of Michelle Lucey at work)
Mrs. MICHELLE LUCEY: And my brother called to tell me, you know, that there was
a fire in the city and a lot of times he would do that.
(Photo of Paul Brotherton)
RATHER: (Voiceover) ...Denise Brotherton was at home...
Mrs. DENISE BROTHERTON: Paul always came home.
(Photo of couple)
Mrs. BROTHERTON: (Voiceover) This--this was not going to be any different.
Paul was always going to come home.
(Photo of Lyons; footage of Lyons)
RATHER: (Voiceover) ...and the parents of 34-year-old Jay Lyons--Joan and
Jim--were watching TV.
Mr. JIM LYONS: The news came on and she said, `Oh, my God, six firefighters are
missing. Is Jay working?' And he was.
(Photos of Lyons; footage of McNamee)
RATHER: (Voiceover) Mike McNamee, who had known Jay since he was a boy...
Chief McNAMEE: He was the closest of the six.
RATHER: (Voiceover) ...went to break the news to Jay's family himself.
Mrs. JOAN LYONS: Mike McNamee came to the door.
Chief McNAMEE: I've known them for 23 years and I cannot ever remember Joan
calling me Michael. It's always Mike. She opened the door and she said,
`Michael, do you have bad news for me?'
Mrs. LYONS: And he said, `Yes,' that Jay was missing.
Chief McNAMEE: It was a--it was just such a terrible feeling.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
RATHER: (Voiceover) Jay's father Jim drove to the fire scene.
Mr. LYONS: I'll never forget that si--sight of that building.
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze)
RATHER: (Voiceover) He needed to see for himself what his son was up against.
Mr. LYONS: (Voiceover) The flames were shooting 100 feet in the air.
And I said, `My God, my son is trapped in that building.'
(Voiceover) It was a hopeless situation. And I can tell you what Joan said to
me most of the night, `I want to hold him in my arms.'
(Footage of Worcester Cold Storage ablaze; firefighters; children; women;
onlookers)
RATHER: (Voiceover) More than 12 hours passed before the inferno was under
control. As dawn broke, the city of Worcester--and the world--learned the
devastating impact of the blaze--17 children left fatherless, five women lost
their husbands, and the deaths of the six brave men touched countless other
lives.
Unidentified Firefighter #9: We walked in with six fellow firefighters and
we're waiting to walk out with them.
Chief McNAMEE: So now we have to find them.
(Footage of firefighters; Worcester Cold Storage; Worcester Cold Storage being
demolished; firefighters looking through debris)
RATHER: (Voiceover) The task of finding their fallen brothers seemed almost
impossible. The building's roof and interior had collapsed.
Chief McNAMEE: We eventually had the left end of the building removed, and now
we could go in and we could start searching by hand, trying to find any sign of
anybody.
Mr. LYONS: It was eight days. It was eight days.
(Footage of firefighters removing debris)
Mrs. BROTHERTON: And for eight days these guys didn't sleep. For eight days,
they searched for six of their own.
(Footage of onlookers; firefighters from around the world)
RATHER: (Voiceover) As the search continued, over 30,000 firefighters from all
around the world, and a television audience of millions, joined the city in
honoring the fallen six.
Mrs. BROTHERTON: I was proud. I was very, very proud.
Unidentified Man #1: (From funeral services) Whether it was a homeless person
or the richest person in the world, it made no difference to them. They knew
their job was to save lives.
Mrs. BROTHERTON: And I was determined to hold my head high and say, `This is
for you, Paul and Jerry, Joe, Jay, Tim and Tom. This is for you.'
(Footage of funeral services; firefighters rescuing Brotherton)
RATHER: (Voiceover) Three days later, Paul Brotherton was the last of the six
to be found.
Mrs. BROTHERTON: These were my husband's dog tags that they found. I'm happy I
was able to have something.
(Footage of firefighters; onlookers)
RATHER: (Voiceover) But amid the grief and the tributes...
Unidentified Woman: Thomas S. Levesque, Julie Ann Barnes.
(Footage of Levesque entering courtroom; Barnes)
RATHER: (Voiceover) ...an arrest. The homeless couple that the firefighters
went looking for are charged with six counts of manslaughter.
Unidentified Man #2: If we can establish that arson occurred, then maybe a more
appropriate charge would be murder.
RATHER: When we come back, an incredible twist of fate hundreds of miles from
here that could put this terrible fire in a vastly different light. So stay
here with us.
