On December 3, 1999, a five-alarm fire at the Worcester Cold Storage & Warehouse Co. building in Worcester, Massachusetts, claimed the lives of six heroic firefighters who responded to the call.
A new Franklin Street Fire Station was built at the site of the fire and officially opened in 2008. Seven sons of the firefighters who lost their lives in the 1999 fire now serve their community as firefighters at the station.
Actor and comedian Denis Leary's first cousin, and his childhood friend and classmate, were two of the victims of the fire. Denis established The Leary Firefighters Foundation in 2000.
"If I was pitching you a Hollywood movie, where I said six brave men died while protecting the community they served — and within 20 years, seven sons of those firefighters would now be working as experienced firefighters in the same department — nobody would buy that," says Denis, "and that's exactly what happened here."
