Worcester firefighters seminar donates $25,000 to Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial
January 21, 2004
Contact:
Link McKie
+1-617-373-8324
+1-617-373-8773 (fax)
l.mckie@neu.edu
WORCESTER, Mass. -- The Worcester Fire Fighters Safety & Survival Seminar is donating $25,000 toward the creation of Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park, raising its total donations to the memorial to more than $100,000.
The donation will be made at center ice before the Worcester IceCats game begins at 7 p.m. Saturday evening, Jan. 24, in the Worcester Centrum.
Worcester Fire Lts. John A. Daly and Andrew White, who founded the Worcester Fire Fighters Safety & Survival Seminar, will present a ceremonial check for $25,000 to Michael J. Donoghue, chairman of the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee.
Daly and White began the seminar soon after the devastating fire at Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co., which claimed the lives of six of their fellow Worcester firefighters.
"Our first seminar had more than 1,200 firefighters from 38 states and two provinces in Canada attend to hear two days of the most renowned fire experts in the country talk about firefighter safety," Daly said. "After months of work and preparation, the event was a major success and, for once, firefighters learned how to use techniques to save ourselves. This event raised $53,000 that was donated to the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial fund."
The seminar raised an additional $23,000 the next year that was intended for the memorial. But because of the tragedy of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the money was donated that year to the New York Fire Department.
In its five years in existence, the Worcester Fire Fighters Safety & Survival Seminar has donated a total of more than $100,000 to Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park. The seminar has also donated safety equipment to the Worcester Fire Department.
In the seminar's second year, a West Coast version of the original seminar was established and named East Meets West, creating a partnership between the Los Angeles County Fire Department and Worcester Fire Department that continues to this day. The Los Angeles County Fire Department donated $5,000 the first year of the partnership to the fund for the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial.
"The seminar has trained and taught more than 3,000 firefighters and spread the word about our memorial and firefighters' safety across the country and Canada," Daly said. "Our job is not just another day at the office."
Donoghue, in thanking the Worcester Fire Fighters Safety & Survival Seminar for its generosity, said: "This is just one more example of the strong bond that exists among brother firefighters, and of their commitment to remembering their own. Our memorial committee has made it our theme that it is 'A Time to Honor Our Own.' No one better lives up to that theme than the Worcester firefighters themselves.
"We thank them with all our hearts, on behalf of everyone in the Worcester community and beyond who treasures the memory of their six fallen comrades and the sacrifice they made for all of us."
The memorial committee, which includes relatives of two of the six fallen firefighters, is in the process of creating the memorial at a site off Grove Street on Salisbury Pond near Worcester Fire Department headquarters and Institute Park. The committee has formally named the site "Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Park 5-1438, December 3, 1999." The numbers represent the fire's five alarms and the Fire Department code for the location of the Worcester Cold Storage fire. The six firefighters died during rescue operations in the building, located off Route 290 near downtown Worcester. Their deaths marked the worst loss of firefighters' lives in more than 20 years in a building fire in America, and the third worst fire in Massachusetts' history.
The Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee began its work in late 2001 to establish a memorial to honor Firefighters Paul A. Brotherton, Timothy P. Jackson, Jeremiah M. Lucey, James F. "Jay" Lyons III, Joseph T. McGuirk, and Lt. Thomas E. Spencer.
The committee will next hold a two-stage open national competition to determine the design for the memorial. Proposals will be sought soon from architects, landscape architects, urban designers and environmental artists from throughout the United States. The committee also plans to kick off its formal fund-raising campaign soon for the memorial park.
Saturday's donation ceremony will take place after an annual charity game between Worcester police officers and firefighters.
Members of the Worcester Fire Fighters Memorial Committee and the families of the six fallen firefighters have been invited to attend the donation ceremony.
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