2 Firefighters Die, 4 Feared Dead in Blazing Building

Two firefighters were killed and four were feared lost while battling a fire in an abandoned industrial building Friday night, authorities said.

Police confirmed two deaths, and family members of all six firefighters were notified and asked to gather at a local church, said a Worcester Fire Department captain who declined to give his name. All were feared dead, he said.

State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said the first two firefighters went into the five-story building together and got lost. Four more went into the building tethered together and they too became lost, he said.

Coan said the first two firefighters got into trouble and radioed for help. The four others went in to look for them and some “sudden traumatic event” occurred to cause them to possibly become trapped, Coan said.

The building, which once was home to a cold storage business, had become a refuge for homeless people who built fires there to stay warm, witnesses told firefighters, according to the Fire Department captain.

All six were from the Worcester Fire Department. Hundreds of firefighters from the city and surrounding towns helped fight the fire.