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

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
impossible. Trees were uprocted, telephone wires and live electric wires made the
street impassable. Leaving the car at this point, and making my way on foot, I arrived
at the corner of Burncoat Street and King Philip Road.
It was at this point that I was informed that a tornado had struck the city. Burn,
coat Street, north and south, was littered with fallen trees, live wires and-d,ebris from
demolishe~=,hou~.es. A man approached me saying that people were dead and many
injured on ’Uncaten.a )~venue, that all the houses were destroyed, and that medical aid
and doctors wer~n~ed~d: -All thd~streets l~gding td this secticn were impassable. We
managed to get vehicles to start pushing the trees to the sides of the streets so that
ambulances could get throug h. Telephones were all out. We were~able to get a vehicle
at the end of the trattic-j~m to tur-ri a~round and move South until he could find a telephone.
Hel was instructed to calL:Police Headquarters and ,have the doctdrs and
ambulances report to the Uncatena- A~renne section. We then requested persons in
nearby homes to go to the aidi of the injured on Uncatena Avenue and render .as,
sistance un,til the arrival of the ambulances. Continuing north~h Burnccat ~t)eet, I
met ’Commissioner ofPublic Works, Earl R.- Perry;- at t-h~-g{br~r of Cl~i~’!g-Street.
He informed me that he had already called for help by radio, and-that he had mobiliaed
all of his departments with instructions to report for immediate duty with full equipment.
He was then establishing his field command post at this point for operations.
We .then heard the wailing of sii~ens .gn ambulances moving in the direction of Uncatena
Avenue.
Suddenly, Civil Defense wardens., auxiliary pc~lic~i-~uxiliary fire, medical, trans,
portation, and personnel from other operating divisions appeared everywhere with their
arm bands on. I directed them to, the Uncatena Avenue section to render fi~Tgt aid,
assigned others to trattic posts, and clearing the streets for passage of vehicles. Fire
apparatus appeared andi in~ their frantic effor.ts to get to the fires, drove the trucks
through debris, onto sidewalks, and through private property. Unless the o~ticers and
firefighters of the Worcester Fire D-~p~rtment.-had mastered these fires, I hesitate, to
think what the Burncoat Street area would have looked like. They did a remarkable
job under tough conditions, and the City of Worcester will alway s be grateful to a
highly efficient department under the direction of .Chief Travers.
Arriving at Headquarters about 6:1Y P. M., I found Harold Rossi, Administrative
Assistant of Regior~ No. 3, Rita Hawthorne, my secretary, and Edward J. Purcell,
Chief of Operations, mcbilizing the Department of Civil Defense for immediate duty.
When the police, fire, public works, and utilities divisions were contacted, they informed
the Operations SectiOn that ,they had alread~r ordered all off duty personnel
and auxiliary units to report for immediate duty. This section was operating with
such smooth efficiency under the directibn of Edward Purcell that I wasn’t needed.
This department was immediately placed on a twenty-four hour duty status.
It was at this point that we. learned the devastation included the area east and
west of West Boylston Street, the Holden and Brattle Streets area, the east and
west of Burncoat ’Street, the Great Brook Valley Housing Project, Brookside and
Lincolnwood.
The Transportation Staff under the direction of Elmer Jones, Carl Engd and
Nathan Sa.tter, arrived and reported in to the Operations Section. Immediately,
ambulances, ’t"~ucks, buses, cab~s and private vehicles were moving into the devastated
areas with instructions to move dead and injured to ho.spitals, and the homeless to
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