Town Remembers 6 Firefighters

Monday, December 4th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) â€” With church bells pealing throughout the city, fire officials on Sunday placed wreathes on the lot where six firefighters died a year earlier after rushing into a burning warehouse to search for homeless people.

It had been the nation's worst loss of life among firefighters from a building fire in more than 20 years.

At 6:13 p.m. Sunday, the precise time the first alarm was struck on Dec. 3, 1999, the names of the six firefighters were read out as hundreds of people listened in silence. Family members of the victims attended the ceremony, but few words were spoken.

``The year is up and everybody's tired,'' Fire Chief Gerard Dio said afterward. ``We want to get on with our lives. We'll never forget these guys. They'll always be in the back of our minds, but we have a job to do.''

The firefighters killed were Paul A. Brotherton, 41; Joseph T. McGuirk, 38; James F. Lyons III, 34; Lt. Thomas E. Spencer, 42; Timothy P. Jackson, 51, and Jeremiah M. Lucey, 38.

Six days after their deaths, 30,000 firefighters and 10,000 civilians â€” including President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore â€” gathered for a memorial service. More than $7 million was raised for the dead firefighters' families, including 17 children.

A homeless couple were accused of knocking over a candle that started the fire, but manslaughter charges against them were eventually dismissed. The six firefighters were the only victims found in the warehouse after the blaze.

Throughout the day Sunday, visitors placed mementos, plastic flowers and flags in the chain-link fence that now surrounds the empty site where the Worcester Cold Storage Facility stood.

``We've been through a horrible fire and a horrible year. It's heartwarming they still remember us,'' said Lt. John M. Ford, who spent part of Sunday at the Grove Street fire station, where the six firefighters were assigned.