S.C. blaze revives Worcester pain

WORCESTER -- When news emerged early yesterday that nine firefighters had died battling a warehouse fire in Charleston, S.C., the Worcester Fire Department was lurched into a past it struggles to come to terms with.

"My heart started to race, and my hands were actually shaking," said Mike McNamee, one of the Fire Department's district chiefs who was on duty the night of Dec. 3, 1999, when a homeless couple staying in the abandoned building sparked the Worcester Cold Storage fire. Six firefighters died in the warehouse blaze.

"I know what those guys in Charleston are going through and what they're about to go through," McNamee said. "It's not going to be easy at all."

The year following the Worcester fire was filled with countless memorials and an outpouring of support from the community. But it also was a time of intense grieving that brought depression, anger, and frustration.

To help get beyond the despair, the department beefed up its training, focusing on how firefighters could best protect themselves while trying to extinguish a blaze and evacuate a smoldering building. The new protocols became examples for other departments, which sent firefighters to Worcester for training.

State building and fire codes also were rewritten to make structures safer for firefighters. Abandoned buildings, for example, are now required to be securely boarded up and must be marked so firefighters know they're empty.

Worcester firefighters are poised to do whatever they can to help Charleston . The support was echoed in a letter of sympathy Governor Deval Patrick sent to Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

"We'll never forget the outpouring of support we received," said Frank Raffa, who heads the Worcester firefighters union and offered union officials in Charleston advice and aid in dealing with the media, fund-raising organizations, and memorial services.

McNamee encouraged the South Carolina firefighters to talk about the tragedy and get counseling for their grief, but he said time is the only thing that will help them heal. And even time will help only so much.

"Every time the memory comes back, it's like a punch in the gut," he said.