NEAFC 31st Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIA~[.~ION ,OF FIRE CHIEFS
when they were unable to get through the streets. I saw them pull the hose and carry
it through priva.te yards in their determined efforts to.. master those fires2 No one told
me these things, I was there. While all of this work is highly commendable, it reflects
the efficiency of Chief Travers who directed these operations. If the firefighters and
their officers did not master these fires, .I hesitate to think what the Burncoat Hill
section would have looked/like. -
Chief Finneran immediately mobilized his off duty personnel and auxiliary units
and all available po.lice rescued victims as well as performing all of the othei: police
services. The rapid response of the off-duty regular police and auxiliary police, is indeed
a credit to the Worcester Police Department. These men worked constantly under
tough conditions and with r~o tho.ught to the many hours that required their services.
Commissioner Perry mobilized the Department o,f ’Public Works and Utilities,
and immediately the tremendous task of clearing streets and heavy rescue work was
under way with smooth efficiency. All of this was necessary before the other Divisions
could .get in to operate. At 5:30 P. ,M. Burncoat Street was impassable. At 10:30
P. M., vehicles could operate in two lanes’, on Burncoat Street. This, indeed, was a
tribute ’to the departments under the direction of Mr. Perry.
Littledid we think that about two weeks after our test and command post exercise
we would ,be faced with a real pro.blem in the’ form of a natural disaster and not a
hypothetical situa.tion. We now had a vhance to place in operation the phases of
Civil Defense that we had learned in the training courses, when most people thought,
"it was the bun,k and not necessary".
Briefly, this is what happened on the day of the tornado:
At 3:30 P. M. on Tuesday, 9 June 1953, we were holding a meeting of the
personnel assigned to the Feeding Section of the Civilian War Air Division in our
office at the Memorial Auditorium. Method~ were discussed and procedures established
for feeding victims and Civil Defense personnel in the event of an emergency. At
about 4:45 P. M. we dismissed this group as it appeared that a~ heavy thunderstorm
was about to take place.
About 5:05 P. M. we dosed the office and started for our homes. At this time
a heavy rain was falling, and dark clouds appeared in the northern section of the city.
En route to my home, which is in the northeast section of the city, I Was caught
in a heavy tr.affic jam at West Boylston and New Bond Streets, ar~.d I could see that
north and south bound traffic was tied up as far north as Brcoks Street. At this time,
the diark clouds had disappeared, the skies w.ere clear, and the sun was shining.
At this time, which must have been about 5:20 P. M., I heard fire and police sirens
coming from the direction of the city. Then a piece of fire apparatus left the Greendale
fire statior~ and entered, New Bond Street. Suddenly, many pieces of fire apparatus
and police cruisers appeared from the city, entering New Bond Street and several
streets leading east from West Boylston Street.
As I sat in my car wondering what had happened, a man ran past an.d I inquired.
as to what had happened. He replied that a heavy windstorm had blown down some
trees and wires, and that fires were .breaking out in many houses on the east side of
West Boylston Street. -In an effort to get away fro.m the traffic jam and r~ender’assistance,
I moved in the direction of Kendirick Avenue. Moving east in the direction of
Burncoat Street, parts of trees were strewn all over the streets, but they were still
passable. As I approached Dorothy and Hillcroft Avenues, further movement was
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