Eagle Feathers #54 – The Faithful and the Fearless

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

While walking by, biking, or sitting in Winter Hill traffic, many people have noticed the names of Reilly and Brickley on the front of the city’s fire headquarters and have casually dismissed them without a thought.  On June 10, Somerville firefighters will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Arrow Paper Company fire where two of their fellow firefighters lost their lives and five were injured. Veteran firefighter, George Janus, was buried in the rubble and narrowly escaped with serious injuries.   Four other firefighters were also injured trying to extricate him.

The early 1970’s was a time of a large exodus from the ranks of the Somerville Fire Department. It marked the retirement of many of the 30-year career firefighters who had been appointed following World War II.  In 1974, because of this exodus, the city had exhausted her hiring list and appointed sixteen out-of-town recruits from the state list to fill its vacant positions.  Coming from Arlington, I was proud to be one of them.   To my knowledge, it was the first and only time in its history that Somerville officially hired out-of-town recruits.

Everyone in the area remembers that night vividly when radio and television news reports flashed the incident.   I was at my fiancée’s birthday party when we heard the news. I left her house to go to the chaotic fire scene and met a Somerville police officer who had Brickley’s boots in hand. He gave them to me, and I later brought them back to the firehouse still in disbelief. Bob was the first firefighter I met on the job.

Robert Brickley of Everett was one of the “Out of Towners” as we were later called. He was in tremendous shape. He was into sports and weight lifting, and was slated to win the Mr. New England Body Building competition. At that time, the new recruits traveled to the north shore Civil Defense barracks for their firefighter training.  Sometimes when returning home from those classes, our carpool caravan would stop to eat and imbibe at the Hilltop Steak House. Bob was a stickler for training. He would surprise everyone by telling the waitress: “Give me a hamburger, burn it, and hold the bread.” He followed that with a tall glass of water, and he was done. He was in the best shape of all of us. He loved the fact that he was taking the place of a veteran, and was looking forward to being a career firefighter. His plans were never to be fulfilled. Only four months later on June 10, 1974, at age 32, his life and dream were cut short at the Arrow Paper Company fire.

Fifty-three year old Joseph Reilly, a 24-year veteran Somerville firefighter, was a World War II veteran sailor. Joe served on the battleship U.S.S. Massachusetts from its birth in 1942 to the end of the war. Engaging in 16 battles, his ship fought in both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. His love for his ship didn’t stop at the war’s end. He was on the committee that created “Battleship Cove“ in Fall River. The U.S.S. Massachusetts’ rescue from the scrap heap was partially due to Joe’s efforts, and there is a memorial on that ship honoring him for those efforts and recognizing his line-of-duty death on the Somerville Fire Department.

One hundred seventy two years have passed since the Somerville Fire Department coined itself, “The Faithfull and the Fearless.”  Scores of firefighters have been injured and eighteen of Somerville’s bravest have made the supreme sacrifice backing up that motto.

“The Faithful and The Fearless”

A poem by Somerville Firefighter Robert Doherty

June, 1999

Two men who gave their lives

Two men so we’d survive

One cadet and one a vet

Firefighters Tall

Men who worked from lofty heights

Coughed and choked in smoked filled sites

Men who suffered fire as their fate

But never were they late

Men with families left alone

Mothers, children on their own

When whose city made the call

Gave their very all

Two men who gave their lives

Two men so we’d survive

One cadet and one a vet

Firefighters Tall