SHAUN SUTNER
Courtesy Telegram & Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.-- They have journeyed 2,000 miles here to this city at the base of the Rocky Mountains to witness six names etched in black granite.
Telegram & Gazette Photo/Paula Ferazzi Swift
Retired Worcester Fire Capt. Michael Coakley and Worcester Fire Lt. Ed Ryan comfort each other while visitng the I.A.F.F. Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial in Colorado Springs, CO.
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The widows, parents and children of the six Worcester firefighters who perished in the fire Dec. 3 at the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. are here.
Also on hand is a huge contingent of Worcester firefighters and their families, more than 300 in all, who have flooded into Colorado Springs by plane, motorcycle, automobile and train over the last few days.
They have all come for the 14th annual observance at the International Association of Firefighters' Fallen Firefighters Memorial, located in Memorial Park at the base of Pike's Peak, the 14,000-foot mountain that towers above this city of 380,000. The observance will take place this afternoon.
The names of 59 U.S. and Canadian firefighters who died in the line of duty have been added to the memorial wall of honor this year.
Among them, grouped together on the last panel of the chest-high, accordion-like stretch of granite wall, are the names of Firefighters Paul A. Brotherton, Jeremiah M. Lucey, Timothy P. Jackson and Joseph T. McGuirk, and Lt. James F. Lyons and Lt. Thomas E. Spencer.
Today's ceremony will be an occasion of great pageantry, one that the association's organizers hope can lift the spirits of survivors.
The blaring of bagpipes, the marching and the colorful flags and uniforms displayed on a broad, grassy field will proclaim the proud esprit de corps of the firefighter brotherhood.
Some here see the permanence of the national memorial as their best hope for a kind of closure to the tragedy. Others know in their hearts that nothing will ever release them from their pain and loss.
"Emotionally, I've run the gamut from OK to down in the dumps. I really didn't know what to expect or how I would feel here," said Firefighter Michael Spencer, the brother of Lt. Spencer, after going up to the memorial wall yesterday morning with his sister and parents.
"But this is just another chapter in the book," he said. "There will never be closure in our family."
Michelle R. Lucey, widow of Firefighter Lucey, said she is trying to stay positive, but it is difficult.
"Honor-wise it will be great, but once I hear those bagpipes, that's it," she said, predicting that she will break into tears.
For Joan McGuirk, a sister of Firefighter McGuirk, seeing his name makes the family's loss "more permanent, more real," because the families never saw the men after their remains were recovered from the gutted warehouse.
Hundreds of other firefighters have made the trek to the memorial, from Philadelphia and Las Vegas, British Columbia and Chicago, California and Iowa. Another 100 or so are from other Massachusetts communities that also lost firefighters in the line of duty.
Organizers are expecting about 2,000 people to an event that usually draws about 500. The unprecedented turnout is by all accounts driven by the Worcester fire, the biggest loss of firefighters' lives in a structure fire in this country in three decades.
Signs of the Worcester fire are everywhere.
Dozens of people are wearing T-shirts commemorating the tragedy. Whether they originate from Massachusetts or Maryland, countless lapels boast badges with miniature color photographs of the men lost in the Worcester inferno.
Yesterday was devoted to rehearsals, meetings between honor guard members and widows and family members of fallen firefighters, and personal visits to the memorial. Some people spent time in a "quiet room" at the Doubletree Hotel, the center of the gathering, dealing with their grief.
Under a brilliant midday sun, with the majestic mountains as a backdrop, more than 200 firefighters from fire departments throughout North America melded themselves into a crack honor guard during a practice session.
Meanwhile, it was an emotional scene at the memorial. Relatives made rubbings of their loved ones' names by pressing parchment paper to the stone. Some ran their fingers softly over the names. Many broke down as they got their first glimpse of the wall.
A Worcester firefighter and a retired colleague sobbed quietly in the shadow of the memorial monument, titled "Somewhere-Everyday" in reference to the daily acts of firefighting heroism that are performed somewhere in the country.
Created by the sculptor Gary Coulter, the 2,600-pound bronze piece sits on an oval pedestal and depicts a firefighter descending a ladder, clutching a child in his arms. It was dedicated in 1988, two years after the International Association of Firefighters took over the memorial from the Colorado Springs IAFF Local 5 and founder A. Ronald Wright, a retired local firefighter.
The wall bears the names of 969 professional firefighters who were association members and who have died since 1976, when Congress approved line-of-duty death benefits and began officially recording fire service-related deaths.
Another national memorial, on the grounds of the National Fire Academy in Emmittsburg, Md., also includes the names of volunteer firefighters.
At the Colorado memorial yesterday, Worcester Deputy Fire Chief Gerard A. Dio squinted against the searing sun and remarked that he hopes that this event, for which so many had traveled so far, will help heal.
"These things are for the living, and these guys are dead," said the deputy chief, who has been appointed the next chief of the Fire Department.
"Now we have to make those who are living happy."
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