Boston firefighters from left, Dan Magoon, Paul Harvey and Jim Kenney will be playing in tonight’s charity hockey game at City Point’s Murphy Rink, better known as the rink at the sugar bowl. They go up against the Massachusetts National Guard’s First Battalion. Gametime is 5pm for only $5. The proceeds will go to the Grunts Family Readiness Group, which raises funds for the families the Guard leaves behind while fighting for our freedom. Herald scribe Joe Fitzgerald writes more here.
I knew something was wrong when I awoke from my sleep the morning of February 20, 2003. When I flipped on the television every network news channel was broadcasting the same crude photos and videos showing some type of escape from a burning building. I was stunned to find out the early fatality stats on this fire. First it was nine dead, then 12 dead. It would eventually reach a staggering number of 100 people who went to the West Warwick, R.I. nightclub that night never to return. I was dispatched to the scene by the Boston Herald photo desk morning editor Arthur Pollock. Staffers Matt Stone and Robert Eng had already been there in the very early morning hours and done yeoman’s work. I remember standing next to WCVB cameraman Curtis Bailey as we trained our lenses on the first responders trying to locate victims. I looked at him after about 20 minutes of seeing body bag after body bag coming out of the burned out shell of a building and in disbelief said: “Curtis, this has to be more fatalities than the 20 that (the authorities) had stated.” He said: “Mark, it’s up to 30 according (his) reporter.” I also remember feeling sympathy for not only the victims and the victims’ families, but also for the brave first responders who were seeing “battlefield” type numbers in that hell hole. here are three of the many photos I snapped that morning.
I covered this very sad story of a wonderful young woman who died in service to our country. Marine Capt. Jennifer Harris, a Swampscott woman and Naval Academy graduate, died when the helicopter she was piloting crashed Feb. 7, 2007 in a field northwest of Baghdad, killing all seven people on board. Below are my photos of her casket arriving at Hanscom AFB and of her funeral, on this date in 2007. Here is the very moving story that my colleague Peter Gelzinis wrote for the Boston Herald and the Swampscott Reporter.
Here is a small selection of the many photos I snapped today of the coyote who found him or herself on the frozen Charles River during today’s snowstorm. More photos can be seen here, in the Boston Herald story by clicking the link “Photo Gallery.” Bill Tanguay, an animal technician at the Animal Rescue League of Boston donned a survival suit and hopped on into the Charles. Once the would be rescuer neared the animal, the coyote took off into the middle of the Charles and was caught a little later.
