Boston fire hits close to home

LYNN – “?Great guys’ are the first words anyone would use to describe them,” Lynn Fire Department Lt. Matthew Reddy said Thursday as he remembered fallen Boston Fire Department Lt. Edward Walsh and Firefighter Michael Kennedy.”They were both big, strong, strapping guys,” said Reddy.Walsh, 43, and Kennedy, 33, were killed fighting a Wednesday afternoon fire in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. Reddy, Lynn Fire Chief James McDonald and fellow Lynn department members as well as firefighters from other communities converged on Boston Wednesday night in a show of support for their Boston comrades.McDonald, a department member for 37 years, said he listened to Boston Fire scanner transmissions Wednesday and heard Walsh call in a mayday alert in the face of the nine-alarm fire.The Lynn department members spent time at the Beacon Street scene of the fatal fire and the nearby firehouse where Walsh and Kennedy worked. McDonald said Lynn firefighters spoke with a half dozen Boston department members.”It was pretty somber,” he said.McDonald said firefighters in big urban fire departments like Lynn’s have close ties to Boston’s department. Their fire-tackling tactics are similar and firefighter social functions and honorary occasions bring firefighters together and forge associations like the ones Reddy enjoyed with Kennedy and Walsh.”We have a connection on a personal level with guys from Boston. We make a lot of friendships,” McDonald said.Saugus Fire Chief Don McQuaid said a large contingent of Saugus firefighters will attend the firefighters’ funerals and memorial events honoring the men and saluting the Boston Fire Department.They paid their respects in 2012 to fallen Peabody Firefighter James Rice, killed fighting a Christmas 2011 fire.”It’s something every firefighter knows can happen. You push it to the back of your mind, but it’s always there,” McQuaid said.Reddy said firefighters will reach out to assist the Boston department as its members mourn Walsh and Kennedy.”This is about their kids and families,” he said.McDonald said mutual respect and admiration brings firefighters together during tragedies as well as the knowledge that support from other firefighters provides strength in tough times.”You can feel the appreciation – you never know – it could end up being you some day,” he said.