The Associated Press
BOSTON — Workers were putting the finishing touches on the site for a new memorial to the state’s fallen firefighters when the word came: two more firefighters had died in the line of duty, this time battling a restaurant blaze in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood.
The deaths of Warren Payne and Paul Cahill on Aug. 29 is lending an even more somber tone to Tuesday’s planned ceremony to unveil the memorial, coming on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“It hits home the need for this,” said Robert McCarthy, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts. “They literally dropped the monument in place the day of the first funeral.”
The centerpiece of the memorial is an 11-foot-tall sculpture depicting three firefighters in “search and rescue mode” battling a fire. Circling the sculpture is a “Ring of Honor” with the names of deceased firefighters engraved on bricks and stones, including about 200 from Boston.
The memorial does not include an official list of names, organizers said. Fire departments and organizations and families were given the chance to buy a brick or stone.
The memorial is located in a small park next to the Statehouse and is opposite a similar memorial for law enforcement officers killed while on duty.
It also includes a fire bell. The ringing of the bell represents the end of an emergency. It also traditionally symbolizes the end of service for a firefighter killed in the line of duty.
McCarthy said the goal of the memorial was to remind visitors of the sacrifices made by firefighters — and to give their families a healing place to visit and remember their loved ones.
“It took a lot of hard work and sweat and tears and love and we’re finally here,” he said. “We’re proud of it.”
The idea for the $1.4 million memorial came nearly a decade ago when fire officials realized that, unlike many other states, Massachusetts had no central memorial for fallen firefighters. Formal planning began about seven years ago.
Lawmakers set aside $245,000 to help jump-start fundraising efforts, with much of the balance of the funding coming from private donations and fundraising events.
The memorial also benefits from a special license plate for the monument. Twenty-eight dollars of the plate’s initial $40 cost goes directly to the memorial fund, with the entire $40 renewal cost going to the fund.
The 4,100 license plates sold are bringing in between $7,000 and $8,000 a month, according to memorial committee spokeswoman Melissa Hurley. The money will go to ongoing maintenance of the memorial.
State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said that, unfortunately, the number of firefighters honored by the memorial is bound to grow.
“Over the course of the years, we’ve attended too many funerals of firefighters who have been killed in the line of duty,” he said. “Firefighters enter the profession knowing there is risk involved. They do that willingly.”
The dedication of the memorial comes as the deaths of Payne and Cahill are still fresh in the minds of firefighters across the state.
The two died when an otherwise routine fire turned deadly when a ceiling was blown down as firefighters worked to put out the blaze. The two may have become disoriented and unable to find their way out, officials said at the time. An investigation is ongoing.
Payne, a 19-year veteran of the fire department, had two children and Cahill, a 14-year veteran, was a father of three. Their funerals drew firefighters from across the country.
The decision to dedicate the memorial on Sept. 11 was meant as a sign of respect for the loss of life during the terror attacks, according to Chief Thomas Garrity of Devens Fire Department, a member of the memorial committee.
“We had a tremendous number of firefighter brothers in New York and Washington who paid a tremendous price and we thought it would be appropriate to unveil our memorial on that date,” said Garrity, whose grandfather died in the line of duty as a firefighter in Hudson.
The unveiling is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, preceded by a procession up Beacon Street in front of the Statehouse by firefighters, officials and 20 honor guards.
The unveiling comes at the end of a day of events memorializing the Sept. 11 attacks, including the reading of names of those Massachusetts residents killed in the attacks and the announcement of the Madeline Amy Sweeney Award, given annually to a state resident who exhibited exceptional bravery
The award is named for Sweeney, an American Airlines [AMR] flight attendant on Flight 11, one of the hijacked planes flown into the World Trade Center towers.
In total, 203 Massachusetts natives or people with strong ties to the state were killed in the attacks.