WORCESTER, Mass. (Reuters) - Bagpipes wailed, widows wept and thousands
of firefighters and citizens led by President Clinton mourned the loss
of six men killed battling a warehouse blaze that still smoldered eerily
on Thursday even as the living grieved the dead.
"Your men are ours. Our whole country honors them and you. We grieve with you, and we will stay with you," Clinton told the families and thousands of firefighters at Worcester's Centrum sports arena where a memorial service was held.
The six men were killed on Friday after two became lost in the
five-story, abandoned warehouse looking for homeless people in the fire.
Four others died trying to save their two colleagues.
Firefighters from as far away as Alaska, Hawaii and Ireland came to salute the firefighters' courage. Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and other officials and clergy spoke at the two-hour service, calling the six men heroes.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, whose own family has seen its share of tragedy, said in a trembling voice to the men's widows and 17 children "I can tell you their loss will always be with you, but the lives they led and the love they gave you will become a brighter, sustaining light for you as the weeks pass into months and years."
Even as the officials spoke and presented the families with American flags and medals of honor, other firefighters continued the painful task of sifting through the smoking wreckage searching for the remains of four of the men.
"We're driven by one desire: to deliver our brothers back to their families," Frank Raffa, head of the Worcester firefighters union, told the hushed auditorium. "We will not give up. We will not leave that scene. We will not rest until we bring our bothers home. And only then can we have closure to this terrible tragedy."
The searchers watched the memorial service on a closed-circuit television. They stopped, removed their blackened helmets and bowed their heads when the Fireman's Prayer was read.
The Worcester Fire Department gave each of its 500 members the day off to attend the memorial. Firefighters from neighboring towns manned their posts.
A homeless couple has been charged with causing the inferno that reached temperatures higher than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 Celsius) in the brick Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse.
The mournful day began shortly before 9:30 when the first of some 20,000 firefighters from companies as far as away as Alaska, Hawaii and Ireland paraded past black bunting covered fire stations.
During the 1.5 mile (4 km) route, the grim-faced firefighters, black bands across their silver shields, marched to the wail of bagpipes and muffled drums. They passed children holding small American flags and parents holding back tears. Flowers festooned fire trucks. And high above the sad scene, an American flag fluttered between two extended fire ladders.
"Two guys went down in a fire and four guys went in to find them. And that's what brought me here," said Bryan Ford, firefighter from Toronto, Canada.
"I'm a Canadian, they're not. It doesn't matter. It's a brotherhood. A fire department is a family. We look out for each other."
Firefighter Steve Froberg, 19, from Unionville, Connecticut, said, "They'll always be in my heart. Every fire I go through, this is something I'll always remember. The fire service is a family and six of my brothers died."