Calif. bench honors fallen

[Neil]

Tuesday, July 27, 2010


Calif. bench honors fallen
Extended fire family wants memorial in city


By Hunter Amabile SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Across the country in California sits a concrete bench engraved with the names of the Worcester Six, the firefighters who died in the 1999 Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building fire.

The bench was created six years ago, when a high school junior named Carolyn Cuzynski completed a school assignment to build a mock memorial commemorating a piece of American history from the last 100 years. While her classmates at Alta Loma High School scribbled down their tributes to World War II and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack victims on the backs of paper plates, Ms. Cuzynski decided to take the assignment a step further.

“If I’m gonna put the effort into a mock memorial, might as well make a real one,” said Ms. Cuzynski, now 22. Her father, San Gabriel Fire Department Capt. Chris Cuzynski, had recently given her the book “3,000 Degrees,” about the Worcester fire and its aftermath.

Ms. Cuzynski said being part of the “fire family” made the loss of six lives 3,000 miles away still have deep impact.

“There is really a sense of fire family no matter where you go in the country,” she said. “It’s like losing six of your brothers.”

Knowing she couldn’t take on the project alone, she sought help from a member of her “fire family,” Capt. Derrick Doehler, who worked with her father. He had experience with memorials. He had designed and created a Sept. 11 memorial erected at the San Gabriel Fire Department. The materials were donated by Valley Monument Co. of San Gabriel, Calif.

Ms. Cuzynski designed the engraving, putting all six names of the firefighters in the middle of the bench. The design also includes a ladder rising a symbolic six rungs above a cloud and the Bible verse John 15:13, which says in part, “Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his brothers.”

Ms. Cuzynski thinks it is important to have the bench in Worcester to remind youths and those who were not living in the city in 1999 of the sacrifice the men made.

“This thing shouldn’t be on the West Coast,” Capt. Doehler said.

But the bench remains in the Cuzynski home. Efforts to move it East have been unsuccessful.

The Worcester firefighters’ union learned of the benchin August, through Worcester resident Marilyn Goddard Sawyer.

“At the time the bench was not a high priority,” said Lt. Donald Courtney, former vice president of the Worcester firefighters’ union. The 10-year anniversary of the fire was Dec. 3, 2009, and the focus of the union was on the dedication of the memorial at the Franklin Street station.

The Fire Department does not have the money to pack and transport the bench. Also, because the bench is made of concrete, some packing companies will not take accept responsibility for crating and shipping.

The Cuzynski family tried to track down people moving cross-country, hoping they might agree to take the bench with them. But they were hesitant to take on the responsibility.

Lt. Courtney said they tried to contact truckers to make arrangements to have the bench brought back as a union-to-union deal.

“Is it important to us? Yes, it is,” he said.

If the bench were to make it to Worcester it would probably be kept in the storage unit at Saint-Gobain, Lt. Courtney said.

“She did this work for us and we can’t even get it here,” Ms. Sawyer said. “That’s the shame of it all.”

Contact Hunter Amabile by e-mail at hamabile@telegram.com.
http://www.telegram.com/article/2010...354/1101/local

This bench was created when Carolyn Cuzynski completed an assignment to build a memorial. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

[Neil]

Wednesday, July 28, 2010


Saint-Gobain to bring bench honoring firefighters to city



By Hunter Amabile SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE


WORCESTER — After six years of sitting idle on the Cuzynski family’s front porch in San Gabriel, Calif., a memorial bench made in honor of the six firefighters who died in the Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building fire in Worcester will make its way to the city thanks to Compagnie de Saint-Gobain.

The French-based company, which ships grinding machines all over the world, has offered to foot the bill for the cross-country journey of the more-than-150-pound concrete bench designed by Carolyn Cuzynski.

Saint-Gobain employee Donna D. Zalauskas forwarded a copy of a story in yesterday’s Telegram & Gazette about the plight of the bench to some of the higher-ranking officers in the company. Immediately, she heard back from two general managers. Ms. Zalauskas, who works in human resources, was told to gather all of the information and the company would take care of the rest.

“It’s all in the works,” she said yesterday.

For 10 years, Saint-Gobain has provided free storage for boxes and boxes of memorabilia and donations received by the Fire Department in conjunction with the Cold Storage fire.

“It’s a natural response that we have to help the community,” Ms. Zalauskas said of the company’s gesture.

Now that the bench is coming back to Worcester, Fire Lt. Donald J. Courtney sees it going to one of two places: the Grove Street Fire Station or the Franklin Street Fire Station. However, he hopes the bench will first go to the storage room at Saint-Gobain, until a definite location for it is decided upon.

“It will find an appropriate place,” said Lt. Courtney. “It could be put in the ground before cold weather.”

He was in Charleston, S.C., yesterday speaking with firefighters there who experienced a similar tragedy: Nine died there in a 2007 furniture warehouse fire.

Ms. Cuzynski, who designed the bench for a high school project in 2004, said she always had hoped there would be a way for it to get to Worcester.

“For a while, we thought the only way it would get there would be if we put it in the back of our car,” she said.

Ms. Cuzynski hopes the bench could be put somewhere in the city where people can see it.

“This memorial is already done,” Ms. Cuzynski said. “To put it in a park doesn’t seem too outrageous.”

But she said the bench is a gift from the Cuzynski family to the city of Worcester and the city can do what it thinks is right.

Saint-Gobain is waiting to get the dimensions and shipping specifications from the Fire Department before the bench can be shipped. The arrangements will be made through the company’s transportation department.

http://www.telegram.com/article/2010...368/1101/local