LYNN — The community gathered together on Sunday to commemorate Lynn firefighters who have served and sacrificed to keep the community safe during the 100th anniversary of the Lynn Firefighters Relief Association Memorial Service in Pine Grove Cemetery.
The centennial service during the annual Firefighters Memorial Sunday was held at the Lynn Firefighter’s Lot in Pine Grove Cemetery, where the city’s firefighters who have died during active duty or since serving are buried.
Firefighters can choose, but are not obligated to be buried in the lot, according to Lynn Firefighter Mario Lopez, president of the Lynn Firefighters Relief Association and vice president of Lynn Firefighters Local 739.
Lynn Fire Chief Stephen Archer thanked the community for gathering each time the memorial service is held to pay their respects.
“By your presence here today and every time we gather, you are letting us know that you stand with us,” Archer said. “You are letting us know that you have not forgotten the service and sacrifice of those that are laid to rest here.
“You are paying tribute with us to all of them — tribute to men like (Firefighter) George Hill of Chemical 1 in 1918, all the way up to Firefighter Richard Love, of Engine Co. 10 in 2018, and to all those in between. You have stood with us, and you have mourned with us, and you have comforted us. And we are strengthened by your support.”
To prepare for the 100th anniversary, the Lynn Fire Department redesigned the Firefighter’s Lot, a $2,500 project that added a walkway and four benches near the monument, which was dedicated in 1918. The walkway was dedicated this year, Lopez said.
All of the work was paid for through fundraising, and was done by Lynn firefighters who volunteered their time, Lopez said.
Since the last memorial service, six retired firefighters have died — District Chief Richard Fitzgerald and Firefighters Robert Hultgren, Robert Campbell, Frank Brennick, Raymond Brackett and Richard Love. Their names were read during Sunday’s service, followed by a sounding of the last alarm, a bell ringing that is done in honor of departed firefighters.
In response to Archer, Mayor Thomas M. McGee said the community was on hand to thank the members of Lynn Fire Department for their service, along with the ability of “this brotherhood to come together and remember those that served together to make this city a safe place every single day.”
“I’m honored to be here with all of you reflecting on those specifically who lay before us and just as importantly, those who put their lives on the line every day to make sure that we’re all safe,” McGee said.
Former Fire Chief James McDonald, who retired in January, was the day’s guest speaker. During his speech, he highlighted some of the 100-year history of the Firefighters’ Lot, along with losses that have impacted him.
McDonald echoed Archer in recalling the first firefighter to be buried in the Firefighter’s Lot as George Hill, of Engine Co. 1, who was born in 1854 and died in 1918 at 64 years old.
The most recent burial was last November — Firefighter Robert Campbell, a World War II U.S. Marine Corps veteran, spent 32 years with the Lynn Fire Department, was appointed on Jan. 3, 1948 and retired on Jan. 28, 1980. He died last November at age 93. He was the first recipient of the department’s firefighter of the year award in 1979.
McDonald said the first retired firefighter’s funeral that he attended was for John Nestor, who was appointed to the department in 1950 and retired in 1975. Nestor died in 1978 at age 52.
McDonald said the first active duty member to die and be buried in the Firefighter’s Lot during his 40-year career in Lynn was Firefighter James Mansfield, who was appointed to the department in 1968 and died in 1980 six days after his 47th birthday.
The retired chief recalled two losses that were significant to him in 2000 — District Chief Robert Jones, who was one of his greatest mentors, died at the age of 74. Jones was appointed in 1951 and retired in 1980.
That same year, he said active duty Firefighter John Weeks died of occupational cancer at 44 years old. McDonald said he worked with Weeks at Broadway firehouse when he was assigned as captain of Rescue Company 1.
McDonald said he understands that the losses of those firefighters he highlighted are not any more significant than all the firefighters honored on Sunday.
“For a vast majority of us, there is a strong level of humility that we possess that is part of being a firefighter,” McDonald said. “It has been stated that we live by a fundamental principle that binds us all as human beings, that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, that we look out for one another, and, that, there is something bigger than each of us individually to which we must always be true.”
Those are the kind of individuals that were honored on Sunday, he said, along with those members who are gone, but not interred in the Firefighter’s Lot. He said it was also important to pay tribute to the families of those lost, as “all of us are united by a bond of strength and sacrifice.”
“Few people understand they are extraordinary, ordinary people, but none are stronger because of the nature of who we are and what we do,” McDonald said.