SWAMPSCOTT — The Fire Department will hold a service at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Burrill Street station as the names of two firefighters — Captain Mark Ryan and William R. Hyde, Jr — are added to a granite monument memorializing Swampscott firefighters who died in the line of duty.
Ryan and Hyde, both of whom were second-generation firefighters, died from service-related health complications in 2021 and 2022. Fire Chief Graham Archer said their family members will speak at their memorial on Saturday.
Archer said the two firefighters, who were known by most of the department’s current firefighters, adds a “whole new perspective” to the monument.
“It has been in front of the station for probably 10 years now, and the names of the people on it were firefighters we never knew,” said Archer. “For the most part, some of the oldest firefighters I’ve worked with know one or two of the people that are on that monument. With these two, it really makes it real for us. Mostly everyone who works at the station knew them, worked with them, laughed with them, argued with them. We lived with them, and now they’re getting engraved in granite. It’s just it really brings it all home for us for all of us.”
