VOLUME 13, NO. 3     June 2001

Firefighters knew the risks

To the editor:

I, too, was saddened by the deaths of six Worcester firefighters in a tragic fire a year ago (The Wire, November 2000). But I wonder at the continuing hagiographic treatment of the firefighters and their deaths. The men were paid professionals trained to fight fires. They knew the risks and accepted them in return for payment. I’m sure their families thought about the possibility that they might die in the line of duty, but like the firefighters themselves, they could balance that possibility against the need for income and benefits, devotion to duty, and so on. In the end, the fire fighters did a job; unfortunately, they died doing it.

What if six deaths had occurred under different circumstances? Suppose a drunken driver on Interstate 290 had killed a family of six? Would the same notables have turned out for their funeral? Would officials have marched? Would former Vice President Gore and Senators Kennedy and Kerry have appeared at the memorial service? I doubt it. Yet a family would have ceased to exist, never expecting or having been paid to face death. Would WPI have offered their survivors scholarships? Would people mourn them and call them heroes?

I’m bothered by how we treat with reverence the deaths of people paid to face death, yet hardly give a thought to deaths caused by other circumstances.

I don’t wish to denigrate the deaths of the Worcester firefighters, but rather to recognize that all deaths are equally tragic, and none is more or less heroic than another.

--Jonathan A. Titus ’67, Milford, Mass.