Dispatcher who Handled Fallen Boston Firefighter's Mayday Remembers

BOSTON — Tears streamed down Iris Hairston’s face as she stood outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the city’s South End Monday morning.

It was just before the funeral procession at 10 a.m. for Bobby Kilduff Jr., a 24-year veteran of the Boston Fire Department and her own career-long “great friend,” who died fighting a fire at a Dorchester home on May 23.

Hairston has worked for the fire department since 2011 and is a fire alarm operator, a dispatcher of its communications and someone who mans the radio systems. In her job, Hairston said, “you get a connection with the guys because you’re trying to keep them safe.”

She was the operator to take the mayday call on the night that Kilduff died.

“I was working the day of the incident and I was on the radio. I took the mayday and I didn’t know it was him at first ... but knowing it was him after, it just really, really hit home,” Hairston said.

Standing next to other operators in the cover of the trees, Hairston wore a white button-down shirt tucked in to a dress uniform pair of pants, her hair slicked away. She let a tear stream down her cheek.

“You know the guys that are working. But you just have to keep it together — and it was hard keeping it together," Hairston admitted. He “always made sure to include everyone” and that “everyone had what they needed. He’ll be so missed.”

Hairston added her personal networks and employer teams of support would help her move forward, but the loss of the man she and others called BK is something she and everyone else will never forget.

Kilduff, 53, died while responding to a fire at 18 Treadway Road in Dorchester on May 23. He fell from a third-story window and was gravely injured.

Kilduff was a third-generation firefighter with 24 years on the job and a Marine veteran. He is survived by his son, daughter and longtime partner, Jessica Struell.

Struell spoke at the end of Kilduff’s funeral proceedings on Monday, after his children, Hannah Jane, 24 and Mason Kilduff, 22, delivered their father’s eulogies.

Struell said she had the “privilege of sharing this last chapter” of Kilduff’s life with him and thanked those in attendance for their love, support and prayers.

“Seeing all of you here today ... people don’t show up like this because of titles of accomplishments. They show up because of how someone made them feel and how they made a difference in their lives. He did that for so many people,” Struell said.

She described a man who was funny, a storyteller, witty and could “walk into a room and somehow make it lighter” always making people ”smile exactly when they needed it the most."

“BK, thank you for your love, your laughter, your strength, your kindness, and for the way you cared so deeply for everyone around you,” Struell said. “Thank you for showing us what it means to show up for others, what it means to love without limits, what it means to give pieces of yourself to others without asking for anything in return.”

Hannah Jane said her father “dedicated his life to helping others” and loved his city, community and his job. He loved his community.

“The only thing he loved more than being a firefighter was being our dad,” she said.

Mason Kilduff, who is also a Marine, said he and his father shared a passion for the city of Boston and bonded over sports teams while Mason Kilduff was stationed over 700 miles away.

His father loved building community — through loyal friendships, the many people he loved down in Key West, which he jokingly called “BK’s disciples,” and coaching many young men for the Parkway Pop Warner Falcons.

“I was always so proud to call him my dad. He was the one front and center when it came to helping someone,” Mason Kilduff said.

“All I thought when I saw that was, ‘Yeah, that’s my old man.’ But the greatest thing that I get to claim about my dad was that he was my best friend.”

Firefighters from Somerville, Concord, Hyannis, Groton and Woburn were just some of the many departments represented from all across North America on Monday morning outside the cathedral, with firefighters from Canada traveling to pay respects.

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