Boston sent a rescue company and a ladder company to the smoldering warehouse on Franklin Street to help recover the remains of four firefighters still entombed in the ashes. Three other Boston companies were covering Worcester fire stations during the memorial. Mullane, a firefighter for 32 years, helped fight the Hotel Vendome fire in Boston in 1972, in which nine firefighters lost their lives when several floors of the building collapsed. While the loss of life in the Vendome fire was tragic, Lt. Mullane said, it touched a different set of emotions than the fire here because the bodies were quickly recovered.
Firefighters find a way to deal with it, but the families never deal with it.
Although eateries were filled, many firefighters left the city immediately after the service. Albert S. Warta, of the New York City Fire Department, said firefighting is the most hazardous job in the United States. Because New York has many old and dilapidated buildings, he said, the city has a yearly average of eight firefighters killed in the line of duty. David Curry of the Providence Fire Department. I was moved by the whole experience.