The Worcester Six: December 1999

Note: this track describes a fatal fire in which six firefighters were killed. Listener discretion is advised.

On the evening of December third, nineteen ninety-nine, two people who had been living in an abandoned building at two sixty-six Franklin Street accidentally knocked over a candle. They fled without calling for help. The building, a six-story cold storage warehouse built in nineteen oh six, had thick insulating walls, no windows above street level, and no fire detection or suppression systems. The fire burned inside undetected for up to ninety minutes before anyone knew it was there.

When the Worcester Fire Department arrived, crews entered to search for possible victims. What they did not know was that the two people who had started the fire were already gone. The building's interior was a maze of identical corridors and flush-handle meat locker doors. Smoke and heat built rapidly. Six firefighters became disoriented inside and could not be found.

Lieutenant Thomas Spencer. Firefighter Paul Brotherton. Lieutenant Timothy Jackson. Firefighter Jeremiah Lucey. Lieutenant James Lyons. Firefighter Joseph McGuirk.

The building was ordered evacuated at seven fifty-eight in the evening. By then, the six were already missing. The fire burned for eight more days. The last of the six was found and removed on December eleventh.

A memorial service at the city's arena was attended by President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. It was broadcast on national television. The fire station that now stands at two sixty-six Franklin Street, opened in two thousand eight, is named for the Worcester Six.

Their deaths changed fire safety codes across the country, particularly for vacant and abandoned structures. At the site where the warehouse stood, a fire station runs its calls around the clock. Every alarm that goes out from that address carries the weight of December third, nineteen ninety-nine.