Cambridge Fire Chief: 'Worcester Six' Were Keeping Watch

CAMBRIDGE, MA — When he was called to the massive fire that engulfed a Cambridge neighborhood Saturday, Cambridge Fire Chief Fire Gerald Reardon told reporters his first thought: "This is gonna be pretty ugly."

Reardon said he felt a sense of foreboding, a fear that the fire department would lose someone fighting what rapidly escalated into a 10-alarm blaze, ultimately damaging or destroying 16 buildings and displacing 125 residents, according to the fire department.

That nobody died, "It's plain and simple—it's nothing short of a miracle," he said.

He was also remembering another devastating fire, exactly 17 years earlier.

As Reardon surveyed the charred aftermath in Cambridge, he said a thought occurred to him: Saturday was the anniversary of the Worcester Cold Storage Fire, in which six firefighters perished: Lt. James Lyons III, Lt. Thomas Spencer, Lt. Timothy P. Jackson Sr., and Firefighters Jeremiah Lucey, Joseph McGuirk and Paul A. Brotherton.

"I can't help but think we had six brave firefighters from Worcester looking over our shoulders Saturday," Reardon said.

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