Family of Fallen Worcester Firefighter Honored in Ceremony

WORCESTER – The crowd in Mechanics Hall instantly stood and applauded as fallen Firefighter Jon D. Davies Sr.’s mother, Ruth A. Davies, and his son, Firefighter Jon D. Davies Jr., accepted a Medal of Honor for Firefighter Davies at the Massachusetts Firefighter of the Year Heroic Awards ceremony Tuesday.

FRM/FFN Worcester 2011 LODD Coverage

Ms. Davies walked off the stage and headed toward the wife of fallen Peabody Firefighter James M. Rice, who died fighting a blaze in his community a couple weeks after Firefighter Davies died. The two women shared a long embrace in acknowledgment of their shared loss and pain, as well as appreciation for the work of both firefighters.

“They cared so much about him,” Ms. Davies said after the ceremony. “He can only be looking down and see how much people love him.”

Firefighter Davies died fighting a blaze at 49 Arlington St. on Dec. 8, 2011. He was inside the three-decker searching for a reportedly missing person when the building collapsed, dumping Firefighter Davies and his partner, Firefighter Brian P. Carroll, underneath piles of rubble.

Firefighter Davies, a 43-year-old veteran firefighter and father of three sons, was killed. Firefighter Carroll was freed by his colleagues only to learn his friend had died.

Firefighter Carroll received a Medal of Valor at yesterday’s ceremony.

This time of year is hard for the Davies family. Ms. Davies said she tries to hold back her concerns about her grandson Jon being on the Fire Department. She said she knows her son is remembered by the city, the state and firefighters across the country.

“I know they didn’t forget him,” she said fighting back tears. “It is always going to be a hard time of year. I’ll never be the same. You lose your child – you’ll never be the same. I miss him so much. I wish he was here.”

In a video presented at the ceremony, Firefighters Davies was remembered as a man close to his sons, who loved riding his motorcycle and gliding across the water in his boat.

Others who responded to the Arlington Street fire and worked to save fellow firefighters from danger were given meritorious conduct awards. In particular, Lt. Mark Chestna and Firefighter Kenneth R. Dion were credited with saving two other firefighters when the rear of the building began to collapse by rushing in and pulling them out of harm’s way.

Other members of the Worcester Fire Department honored for their efforts at the Arlington Street fire were: Deputy Chief John F. Sullivan; District Chief Dennis J. Dolan; Capts. Robert J. Courtney and Shawn Wyse; Lts. Mark J. Cady, Joseph P. Gaffney, John J. Griffin, John Kennedy and Stephen L. Mulry, and Firefighters Robert A. Atchue, Mathew Berthiaume, Lincoln K. Boisseau, Shawn Dyer, Ruben Guadelupe, Thomas Hackett, Christopher Johnson, Stephen Kelly, Bruce Lariviere, Robert J. LaRose Jr., James Mateychuk, Thomas Moore, Michael Pinkham, Maurys C. Ramirez, Paul Randell, Paul K. Ronayne, David M. Ryan, David J. Sachs, Timothy Sanko and Seamus Shanley.

Deputy Chief Sullivan accepted the award for the crews.

“The ability of our men to singularly focus on the recovery of Firefighter Davies and Firefighter Carroll given the circumstances of the collapse is an amazing testament to their courage and their ability to stay within themselves even under trying circumstances,” Deputy Chief Sullivan said. “Their courage and fortitude is an inspiration to all of us.”

A crew of Leominster firefighters was honored for its response to an overturned canoe in the Notown Reservoir in Leominster on May 12. Crews worked to pull two people from the water and give aid to others who had made it to shore.

Firefighters James Cameron and Matthew Burke went into the water to bring two victims who were still holding onto the canoe back to the shore. Deputy Chief Daniel Kirouac, Lts. Jeffery Nickel and Michael Marino, and Firefighters Kris Keckler, Joshua Burdett, Jonathan Campagna, Vincent Apollonio and Nicholas DeCarolis were all part of the rescue. All of the Leominster firefighters were given meritorious conduct awards.

Fitchburg Deputy Fire Chief David F. Rousseau received a Medal of Valor for rushing into a burning building, while off duty, and saving people inside. The deputy chief stopped fellow firefighters from being electrocuted in the June 5 fire.

WPI professors John Orr, James Duckworth, David Cyganski and Kathy Notarianni received the State Fire Marshal’s Award for their firefighter safety projects.

“We feel humbled being given this award in the presence of these firemen, whose job is much harder than ours,” Mr. Cyganski said in a news release.

With the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. in mind, the professors set about finding ways to keep firefighters safe. Six firefighters died fighting the Dec. 3, 1999 fire. The professors have developed systems to better track firefighters inside buildings, predict when items in a room will ignite and detect deadly gases.