When Michael Kennedy was a rookie firefighter he called his mom with exciting news. He was just back from his first fire.
“He just went into this description,” recalled Kathy Crosby-Bell, “and I was like Michael please remember who you are talking to – you don’t want to tell your mother this. I was having palpitations.”
Hearing about fires made her so nervous, Crosby-Bell stopped watching the news. On a windy day in March of 2014, however, she could not tune out the news of a fire that broke out in a Back Bay brownstone. Her son and another Boston firefighter, Lieutenant Ed Walsh, were trapped in the basement. They both lost their lives.
“We miss him so much,” said Crosby-Bell who is experiencing her second holiday season without her son. “He was really the life of every party. So everywhere you go – holidays, special events, it’s always so difficult without him there. It’s just impossible to get used to.”
Crosby-Bell has dealt with grief before. Her husband died when Michael was still a boy and she says she retreated from the world. This time she decided to channel her grief into action, to do something in Michael’s memory. Within months she launched Last Call Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping firefighters safe. She was stunned to learn that Boston fire stations were missing a vital piece of safety equipment … washing machines.
“The firefighter gear is so badly contaminated at each fire,” explained Crosby-Bell. “It’s coated with whatever the carcinogens were that were burning and you can just imagine it’s covered in soot and each time they touch it absorbed thru their skin.”
It’s not just smoke firefighters deal with, but also chemicals that are in everything from wall paint to furniture to window shades.
“Think about firefighters going into an environment,” said Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn. “All that smoke, heat, all that toxin swirling around that environment and they’re exposed to it. They’re getting mega doses of these carcinogens every time they go into a burning fire.”
Over the last 25 years, Boston has lost 15 firefighters in the line of duty. The number lost to cancer in that same time period - 175.
“We were always aware of the problem, we kind of just took it as a part of the job,: explained Finn. “It’s time to change and that’s what we’re trying to do now.”
Part of that change is the installation of industrial washing machine. In less than two years, Crosby-Bell’s Last Call foundation has raised 800-thousand dollars, enough to buy and install the machines in 21 Boston firehouses. After each call, firefighters now drop their gear into a washing machine to get rid of cancer-causing chemicals.
“There’s no need for them be dying at the rate they’re dying,” said Crosby-Bell. “I want Michael’s friends to live to see their own grandchildren. It’s what I would what I would want for Michael, so it’s really what I would want for them.”
Washing machines are just the beginning of Crosby-Bell’s efforts. Last Call Foundation is also funding research at Worcester Polytechnic Institute that she hopes will one day lead to a more fire resistant hose.
“For me, Last Call Foundation is an extension of Michael and Michael’s spirit, “ said Crosby-Bell. “Sometimes I fell like he’s taking me by the hand and saying ‘cmon Ma, just keep moving.”
