24 years after Cold Storage fire, sons of ‘Worcester 6' work at city's fire department

It's been 24 years since the Worcester Cold Storage warehouse fire killed six firefighters from the Massachusetts city's department.

All these years later, their legacies live on through some of their children, who are now part of the Worcester Fire Department themselves.

NBC10 Boston spoke to one son ahead of Sunday's somber milestone, who says Dec. 3, 1999, is a day burned into his memory.

Dan Spencer was 13 years old when he lost his father, Worcester Fire Lt. Thomas Spencer.

"He was a great family guy and his humor was incredible," Dan Spencer said.

Thomas Spencer is one of the Worcester Six. The group lost their lives looking for homeless people believed to be inside the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building 24 years ago Sunday. The others who died in the abandoned warehouse are firefighter Paul Brotherton, Lt. Timothy Jackson, firefighter Jeremiah Lucey, Lt. James Lyons, and firefighter Joseph McGuirk.

"I was at a high school party at my friend's house in his basement, I was just hanging out there, and my brother called wondering where I was because I was late to get picked up so I was hanging out there when everything was happening," Dan Spencer recalled.

It took more than a week to recover the bodies of all six men. Dan Spencer says at some points it felt like months, but it was his first real exposure to how deep the brotherhood is for the firefighters.

"Guys didn't want to go home. You kept seeing guys take shifts. They'd go home for a couple hours of sleep and come back so it was an odd experience but it was where I think the beginning of seeing the brotherhood came through," he said.

Fast forward to today, with his father tattooed on his leg, Dan Spencer -- like his dad -- is a lieutenant with the Worcester Fire Department. He says as a kid, he always thought about following in his father's footsteps.

"I used to come visit him at the station all the time and I think at that age you're still in that I'm gonna be a firefighter, every kid goes through that, but I think that's where it cemented it and you just don't grow out of that phase after that," he said.

Dan Spencer is far from the only one to continue his father's legacy in the department. He's one of the seven sons of those firefighters now doing the same job.

"It's a different kind of bond, it's one of those things where you don't want to have to bond," he said. "It's kind of an unspoken thing, we kind of all went through it and we're kind of just one of the guys so we have that more now."

He says Dec. 3 is a day for reflection and one he tries to do so with a couple of hot dogs from George's Coney Island, his dad's favorite spot for a bite in Worcester.

While the Worcester Cold Storage is no doubt part of their legacies, Dan Spencer and his brothers in the department look to create their own story.

"We've gone from following to almost walking beside and creating our own footsteps and creating our own legacies on this job and trying to do our thing and it's been amazing just trying to do that," he said.

The Worcester Fire Department said in a Facebook post on Sunday they are remembering the six brave men who paid the ultimate sacrifice on Dec. 3, 1999.

"On this 24-year anniversary we keep the families in our thoughts and prayers," the post read.