The union representing Brockton’s firefighters celebrated its 100th year of activity Saturday afternoon with a party at their local union hall.
The International Association of Firefighters Local 144 was joined by two firefighters from Scranton, Pennsylvania, who made the trip as part of a tradition stemming back to 1941.
Thirteen Brockton firefighters died that year while extinguishing a fire at Brockton’s Strand Theatre. In their honor, a Scranton firefighter carved a memorial out of anthracite, which still stands in Brockton City Hall.
The connection between the departments went quiet until 2008, when a Scranton firefighter was killed in the line of duty.
“I got a call from a Brockton firefighter,” recalled David Gervasi, then-president of Scranton’s IAFF local, who drove five hours to celebrate the Brockton local’s centennial. “He told us, ‘We’ve been waiting 65 years to do you guys a favor in return.’”