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Writer's pictureAnngelle Wood
Jul 14, 2021

Episode Twenty Two | The Worcester 6: The Cold Storage Warehouse Fire, Worcester, Mass (part one)

No event has impacted the city of Worcester more in the last 21 years than the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse Fire. It showed what the city and its people are made of. On December 3, 1999, a fire broke out at an abandoned warehouse at 266 Franklin Street in Worcester, Massachusetts - a massive, six story windowless concrete box of a structure. Its maze-like design proved to be deadly. The fire raged undetected for nearly two hours. More than 25 firefighters went in to fight it back. Six of those men didn't make it out. The Worcester Six: Paul Brotherton, Jeremiah Lucey, Thomas Spencer, Timothy Jackson, James Lyons, and Joseph McGuirk.

Photo Gallery Thank you to the Leary Firefighters Foundation - learyfirefighters.org

Fire Firefighters who appear in the Worcester 6 documentary: Lt John Franco, WPD Rescue 1 Andrew White, WPD Deputy Chief of Operations Joe Gaffney, WPD Rescue 1 (retired) Chief Mike Lavoie, WPD Don Courtney, WPD Engine 16 (retired) LT John Dwyer, WPD Training Division


Crime of the Truest Kind Hosted by Anngelle Wood New England crime stories Online: CrimeoftheTruestKind.com Music in this episode from Joe "onlyone" Kowalski and Andrew King onlyone.bandcamp.com Thank you for listening. Listen, subscribe, rate + review! #truecrime #worcestersix #worcester #massachusetts #newenglandcrimestories




The Worcester Six: Paul Brotherton, Jerry Lucey, Tim Jackson Jay Lyons, Joe McGuirk, Tom Spencer








Source Links

U.S. Fire Administration/Technical Report Series, Dec 1999 https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr-134.pdf

NFPA.org - After Effect By Matthew Foley

In December 1999, a fire in an abandoned warehouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, killed six firefighters and sent a shock wave through the country's fire service. Twenty years later, the reverberations are still being felt


Firehouse.com - The Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Fire: 20 Years Later, by Gus Maynard

Gus Maynard reminds us of how two decades ago, the Worcester, MA, Fire Department lost the lives of six firefighters in a spectacular blaze

About Worcester The Lucky Dog history

Rolling Stones at Sir Morgan's Cove

There goes the Lucky Dog


The Worcester Centrum

Andy Ross of OK Go


The Hotel Vernon


LB Worm of wormtown fame


Wormtown Punk Blogspot

Mass Live - Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire, which claimed lives of 6 firefighters, remembered 19 years later, by Melissa Hanson, Dec 04, 2018 https://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/2018/12/worcester_cold_storage_and_war.html 343 NYC firefighters died on 9/11. Since then, 200 have died from Ground Zero-related illnesses


Newsweek - Why the 9/11 Death Toll Is Still Rising Today, by Sophia Waterfield, Sept 11, 20 https://www.newsweek.com/how-many-people-died-911-thousands-perishing-september-11-related-illnesses-1531058

WPVI ABC 6, Philadelphia - Sept 11 attacks are still killing first responders 19 years later https://6abc.com/911-illness-deaths-after-new-york-firefighter/6418931

Boston Fire History - The Vendome

https://bostonfirehistory.org/fires/the-hotel-vendome-fire-and-collapse The Strand Theater Fire, Brockton, Massachusetts


Profiles of the Worcester Six https://www.firehero.org


Recommendations post fire


ARCHIVES


This Morning, The Sun Didn't Rise': Worcester Grieves For 6 Firefighters Presumed Killed On The Job, by Daniel Mac, Cindy Rodriguez, Dec 5, 1999


Six Who Died In Worcester Remembered Families Recall Firefighters' Devotion To A Perilous Duty, by Ellen Barry, Marcella Bombardieri, Dec 6, 1999 https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/bostonglobe/docview/405313900/c025e5e00df7408dpq/7?accountid=9675

Stalled Search Yields Heartache Only, By Marcella Bombardieri, Dec 7, 1999 https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/bostonglobe/docview/405323108/C025E5E00DF7408DPQ/10?accountid=9675

Part two to come

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