An Incredible Honor... an old photo revisited

Almost 8 yrs ago I covered a news story where 6 firefighters had perished in a fire here in Worcester, MA. I was the first photographer on the scene that night and covered the story for 2 wks straight along with the photo staff of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette as they recovered the bodies of the fallen men and the those tearjerking funerals. This was such a big story here in Ma that even Pres Clinton and Al Gore came for the memorial service. Our photo staff was ultimately nominated for the 1999 Pulitzer for Feature Photography...we were finalists.

So yesterday they dedicated the fire memorial and new training center in Worcester, MA where the fire occurred. I was completely shocked and honored to see that one of my images of the fire scene I believe 3 days later is part of the memorial. I think of this particular image they used in the memorial as my career image in photojournalism. The photo is of the District Chief standing on the 2nd floor of th rubble of the cold storage warehouse pausing for a moment as searching for his fallen men continued days later after the fire had occurred.

Here is that image:



And here is a photo of Denis Leary at the Training Center and Memorial discussing the images in the memorial.


You can read an article that appeared in today's Worcester Telegram & Gazette: ( it will probably only be live on 10/4)
http://www.telegram.com/article/20071004/NEWS/710040628/1008/NEWS02

This image was part of our staff's pulitzer portfolio as well as these 2 images




and 2 more images from the night of the fire and a few days later





I hope to bring my 3 boys there in the future to show them the memorial and teach them about these heroic men.