Widow of Worcester firefighter pens op-ed calling for safety changes

WORCESTER, Mass. — Kathy Spencer is filled with anger and fear because she doesn't want any other family to go through the loss she's gone through and that the Menard family is going through right now.

Kathy Spencer is the widow of Worcester Fire Lt. Thomas Spencer, who was one of the six firefighters killed in the cold storage warehouse fire of December 1999.

Spencer expressed sympathy for the Menard family in her op-ed in the Worcester Telegram, saying sadly that the pain of losing your partner never goes away.

Worcester has lost nine firefighters in the past two decades and Spencer writes, "blaming triple-deckers or other unique structures is not enough. Firefighter deaths do not happen with such regularity in other cities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which have similar multifamily dwellings."

She then calls for more collaboration between city departments, as well as "better training and systematic examination of the department to — not to place blame — identify and support the clear failures in the system so that Jon Davies, Chris Roy and Jason Menard’s deaths will not be repeated. The cycle has to stop."

Spencer's father was firefighter, her husband lost his life fighting a fire and now her son is a member of the department.

Spencer is proud of her family's service, but if the City of Worcester doesn't make changes to keep firefighters safe, she says she hopes that lineage of service ends after her son.

Cox Media Group