From the Governor:
Please be advised that Governor Patrick has ordered that the United States flag and the Commonwealth flag be lowered to half-staff at all state buildings from sunrise until sunset on Thursday, December 15, 2011 in honor of Firefighter Jon D. Davies Senior of the Worcester Fire Department who died in the line of duty on Thursday, December 8, 2011.
A short while before six Worcester Firefighters entered the "Building from Hell" and--despite the best efforts of comrades near and far--perished, I took an eight week Citizen Police Academy course where one night we did interactive, real time, audio visual training of possible patrol situations where I was killed in the line of duty.
Turns out that particular scenario was specifically designed for that chilling result to illustrate how, in certain circumstances, no matter how good your training and how well you execute that training, whereby you do everything right...death can still result.
A sobering truth for all public safety personnel--driven home once again.
