Rest Easy Brother, We Will Take it From Here!

Sad news has spread throughout the fire service community again, as we begin to react to facts about a tragic firefighter line-of duty death in Worcester, Massachusetts.  Firefighter Jon Davies, a 17-year veteran, searched the three story apartment after twelve occupants had already fled or been rescued by the emergency responders.  Then the building collapsed, trapping firefighters under the burning rubble of this dilapidated tenement building.  Several yards away stood the boarded up, charred remnants of an identical apartment house that burned a few months ago. 

This event comes just days after the anniversary of the horrible catastrophe in a cold storage warehouse fire that killed 6 Worcester firefighters in 1999. 

It is real easy to ask, “Why?”  To look at the building, you’d think, “what a dump”!  Firefighter Davies and his crew re-entered the building without hesitation due to a report of a tenant still trapped in a rear bedroom. Firefighter Davies saw someone’s home being consumed by fire, but more importantly, he believed there was a life to be saved.  This was not someone he loved, not someone he even knew; but firefighters don’t think that way.  Firefighters believe that there are very few risks that trump the reward of someone’s life being saved.  Ironically, there was no longer anyone trapped in the building, until of course, the structure failed.  It took over an hour for crews to reach the trapped firefighters, and for Jon, that was just too much time.

This is what bonds firefighters.  This is why we use terms like “family”, and “brotherhood”.  We use these terms in reference to people we have never met, and will likely never know.  It is not likely that we will ever meet his three sons, or anyone else in his family.  I doubt we will ever speak with Firefighter Brian Carroll, his partner, who is suffering from critical injuries sustained in the collapse, or any of his friends and family either.  Chances are we may never even shake the hand of a Worcester firefighter, yet we stand as one, filled with great sorrow.

We know our kids, and our families, and our friends who would be directly impacted our untimely passing.  Those of us, who have known a lost hero personally, fully understand the overwhelming grief and sense of emptiness that will dig away in the guts of the ones we love for years.

We know that he made the correct decision.  We understand the risk he took to save the life of another human being.  We know he had precious little time to ponder his choice, and acted instinctively, as we all would in that situation.  That is what scares the Hell out of us.  We may be faced with the exact same decision tonight … and we may not be as brave as Firefighter Jon Davies was. 

Rest easy brother, we will take it from here!