Deputy Fire Chief James Kane looks on as Fire Chief Mary Regan accepts a Fire Marshal’s Award from Governor Deval Patrick Wednesday during a ceremony staged in Worcester by the state’s Department of Fire Services to honor outstanding service by fire fighters across the commonwealth. (Photo courtesy Fire Commissioner Albert Masciadrelli)
WORCESTER – A delegation of Westfield officials traveled to Worcester Wednesday for an awards ceremony staged by the Department of Fire Services of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to honor firefighters, including Westfield firefighters, for exceptional service in the past year.
Westfield Fire Chief Mary Regan was advised in October that her department would be the recipient of a Fire Marshal’s Award in recognition of, in the words of fire marshal Stephen D. Coan, “outstanding rescue and recovery efforts during the aftermath of the F3 tornado which touched down in Western Massachusetts on June 1st.”
Regan said that the scale of the event “really tested our command structure and our response for a large area” and required firefighters to coordinate activities over a large part of the city at a time when the resulting power outage hampered communications and access to parts of the city.
She said that the focus of the immediate effort was “to make sure that everybody in that area was okay” and went on to say “To our amazement, we didn’t find anybody really in trouble.”
Regan was joined on stage at the ceremony by Deputy Chief James Kane who had been in command when the tornado struck. The award was presented to Regan by Gov. Deval Patrick.
The audience in the packed Hanover Theater in Worcester included two other proud city officials, Mayor Daniel Knapik and the city’s fire commission chairman, Albert Masciadrelli.
Knapik said after the ceremony, “It was a very moving experience, listening to all the award winners from across the state.”
Masciadrelli said, “The recognition by the governor and the public safety officials was unprecedented.”
He said that he was proud of how the department responded to the emergency. “The whole thing was just so overwhelming” he said. “It caught everybody off guard but they managed … and nobody really got hurt.”
Masciadrelli credited the mayor and the City Council with providing the department with the up-to-date equipment needed to protect the city.
“I certainly am proud of the whole system”, both as a citizen and a fire commissioner, he said.
