Actor and comedian Denis Leary is scheduled to attend a ceremony in his hometown to mark the 20th anniversary of a warehouse fire that took the lives of six Massachusetts firefighters.
The Telegram & Gazette reports that according to a city spokesman, the Worcester native is among thousands of firefighters and civilians expected at the ceremony Tuesday to remember the firefighters lost in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. blaze on Dec. 3, 1999.
The Worcester Historical Fire Society has created a tribute to the "Worcester six": Lt. Thomas Spencer, Lt. James Lyons, and firefighters Paul Brotherton, Timothy Jackson, Jeremiah Lucey and Joseph McGuirk.
The six firefighters lost their lives looking for homeless people believed to be inside the vacant warehouse.
Lucey was Leary's cousin, and Spencer was a childhood friend. He became an advocate for firefighter safety after the blaze.
The exhibit includes equipment used to fight the deadly fire, newspaper clippings, and items sent to the fire department from all over the country.
One of the organizers says the outpouring of support means as much to them now as it did then, 20 years ago.
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"Let's bring it out and put it on display so that the people who did send it to us could see that we kept it, we remembered the generosity of them with their appreciations, and their prayers and things like that," said retired Worcester fire Lt. Donald Courtney. "And here it is."
The memorial is on display through Dec. 4 at Union Station.
