LYNN — Sunday was a perfect day for doing a lot of things, but more than 100 people chose to gather in Pine Grove Cemetery to honor firefighters who came before them, including the ones who died in the line of duty.
“This is sacred ground to so many of us,” said Fire Chief Stephen Archer during his remarks. “Each year, we appreciate all that you do when you come out to join us. You are saying that you, too, honor our memory.
“That support and encouragement keeps us going,” Archer told the crowd of people, many of whom were family and friends of firefighters. “We owe all of you a very deep and heartfelt ‘thank you.'”
The 102nd service on Firefighters Memorial Sunday was held at the Lynn Firefighter’s Lot in Pine Grove, where many of the city’s firefighters who have died during active duty or since serving are buried.
Sunday’s service also represented the resumption of Firefighters Memorial Sunday, as the event was not held last June due to COVID-19 restrictions — something to which speaker Joseph E. Scanlon III alluded.
“This is the 43rd time in the last 44 years I’ve been here for this,” said Scanlon, son and grandson of two former fire chiefs (and nephew to former Police Chief Thomas Fay).
Scanlon said he was honored to have the opportunity to pay tribute to his father and grandfather, and said he remembers many Sunday dinners that were interrupted by phone calls and fire alarms.
“I can remember riding in the back of the old Lynn fire chief’s car — a 1948 DeSoto,” Scanlon said.
And, he remembers many occasions where family gatherings were interrupted by the call to duty.
“Down would come that DeSoto from Pine Hill,” he said. “It always seemed to happen on Easter or some other occasion.”
His father and grandfather served a combined 36 years as chief, Scanlon said.
“My grandfather used to take me here, and for a while I thought the statue up there (on the (knoll at the top of the lot) was of him,” he said. “It took him a while to convince me that it wasn’t.”
Scanlon also said that his grandfather worked during a time “when you worked 72 hours a week, and went into burning buildings without masks on.
“He didn’t live too long after he retired,” Scanlon said. “He had a lot of heart issues.”
He said he also saw his father “studying incessantly” to take the exam to become the future chief, and he was in that position in 1981 during the second Great Lynn Fire that destroyed a significant part of Lynn’s downtown area.
“When it was over,” Scanlon said, “Mayor (Antonio) Marino came up to me and told me I should be proud of the work my father and the department did. ‘He saved the whole damn city,’ he told me.”
Also speaking was retired firefighter Steve Walsh, who also came from a family of firefighters. His father, Paul, died in the line of duty, he said.
“I’d always go to this to see my father, ” Walsh said. “My brother, Kevin, is also a firefighter. We learned a lot about it from my father”
Also attending was Mayor Thomas M. McGee, and city councilors and School Committee members. Beth Hilton of Lynn sang the national anthem, Ryan Whittier, son of a firefighter, played taps when the roll call of deaths since 2019 was read, and Deidre Dorgan helped lay the wreath on the monument.
Also on hand was Kevin Cronin on bagpipes; and the Lynn English Junior ROTC team.
