BEGIN VIDEOTAPE, DECEMBER 4, 1999) BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the fire that devastated a vacant warehouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, the lives of six firemen, and the lives of the families who lost them were engulfed in a catastrophe Worchester's mayor said, "for everyone in the city was a death in the family."</s>MAYOR RAYMOND MARIANO, WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS: This morning the sun didn't rise. It didn't rise because last night we lost six members of our family. They were our brothers, our fathers, our sons, and our friends, and they were our protectors.</s>DELANEY: Tragedy leaving more than a dozen children fatherless this Christmas. The most firefighters killed in a building fire in the United States since 1978.</s>STEVE COAN, MASSACHUSETTS FIRE MARSHALL: It was in a vacant, cold storage warehouse, five-story. The report was that we had people living, homeless people living in the building/</s>DELANEY: The six firefighters apparently losing their way in a windowless building described as a maze. Family gathered, many comforted by clergy, as local people came, too, some praying.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I was just hoping and praying for a miracle. You know, it's the season of miracles, and you wish that everything would turn out all right.</s>DELANEY: For the hard working, mostly blue collar, city of Worcester, Massachusetts, though, this will be a Christmas seared by loss.
CNN 20: Deadly Massachusetts Fire, December 4, 1999