Updated: Thursday, December 9, 1999 - 2:15 PM
Memorial Service to Be Shown Live Online
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President Clinton among the thousands expected to attend one of the largest public firefighters’ memorial services in U.S. history, IAFF officials say; Arrests made in conjunction with blaze as search for five men still missing continues
Firehouse.Com, in affiliation with WHDH-TV in Boston and
New England Cable News, will feature live video feeds from Thursday’s memorial service for six Worcester, Mass. firefighters killed in the line of duty Friday while searching a blazing abandoned warehouse.
President Bill Clinton announced Tuesday that he will be among the thousands expected to fill the Worcester Centrum, making it one of the largest public memorial services for fallen firefighters in U.S. history, according to George Burke, spokesperson for the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).
The IAFF’s leadership, the city of Worcester, IAFF Local 1009, Worcester Fire Department and the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts are working together on the service, Burke said. Many local businesses are donating their services to make this event work.
“We expect 15,000 firefighters to converge on [the city] for the memorial service,” Burke said. Hotels around the city have been offering special discounts and many are already sold out.
The service, scheduled for 11 a.m, will be preceded by a procession along a half-mile route that will pass the two stations where the fallen firefighters worked. Schools and many businesses in the area will be closed to allow citizens to attend or view the service.
Burke said the support given to the region’s firefighters has been nothing short of incredible.
“The citizens of Worcester have opened their hearts for the firefighters … they share their grief,” he said. “They maintain a vigil on [the scene], just as firefighters maintain a vigil inside. Everyone wants to help.”
A fund set up by the Worcester Telegram and Gazette had raised more than $360,000 for the victims’ families by Tuesday evening including a little more than $280,000 already donated and more than $80,000 in pledges, newspaper officials said.
Clinton made a federal emergency declaration for the incident earlier Tuesday, allowing federal funds to be used in the search and recovery effort. Crews continued to look for the five men still missing in the rubble. Two homeless people have been charged with manslaughter in connection with the firefighters’ deaths. Fire officials said the fire ignited after the couple knocked over a candle during an argument and fled the building. Firefighters initially entered the vacant building to search for homeless people reportedly living inside.
The fire was the second deadliest for America’s firefighters this decade, behind a 1994 Colo. wildfire that took 14 lives. Only the 1972 Hotel Vendome fire in Boston took more firefighters’ lives in a building fire in the last three decades, leaving nine dead in a collapse after the fire had been extinguished. Six firefighters in Kansas City died in 1988 when a trailer of explosives exploded. Ten industrial fire brigade firefighters in Illinois were killed in an oil refinery blast in 1984. The last time six U.S. firefighters were killed in a building fire was a 1978 supermarket fire in New York City.
New England Cable News and WHDH-TV’s coverage will begin during their morning newscasts, Webmaster Chris Nuernberg said. Firehouse.Com will also link to archived footage of the service from New England Cable News. NECN did a feature story about Firehouse.Com earlier this week regarding coverage of the tragedy and the condolences from around the community and around the world that have been posted on the site.
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