The Patriots' star quarterback Tom Brady was a witness to the massive 9-alarm fire that claimed the lives of two firefighters in Boston yesterday.
Brady and his wife, Giselle Bundchen, live in the Back Bay neighborhood, close to 298 Beacon Street, the building where the fire broke out.
Today, he called in to radio station WEEI's Dennis & Callahan show to offer his condolences and express his deep gratitude for the sacrifices and bravery of the city's firefighters:
“I can’t express my gratitude and thanks enough to all the first-responders and the people that were there fighting that fire all night last night,” Brady told the show. “I had a firsthand view of all the action and was just blown away by the bravery and the teamwork that they really displayed. I’ve lived in the Back Bay for a long time, and that was one of the scarier days. I feel so badly for the families of the two firefighters that were lost and obviously all the men that were associated with fighting that fire yesterday, losing one of their close friends.
“We as athletes think that we’re heroes, but when you witness firsthand what I saw yesterday, you realize who the real heroes are in this world. And that’s the people that work hard to protect our lives and protect our safety, our freedoms in America, certainly the firefighters and Boston Police and the state troopers.
“I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.
"I looked out the front of our house and could see the flames, and then kind of went back to my room, and then went back about two minutes later and just saw it growing. . . At that point, I had gone to the back part of the house, from my deck, and could see kind of what they were up against. At that point, all the fire engines were coming down the street. I was watching for obviously a long time. At one point, I saw a pretty big explosion of flames, and a lot of the firemen were coming out of the building. That’s when I really got nervous. I felt so badly for them.
“Our lives were never in jeopardy at all thanks to those men, brave men who were there fighting that fire for us. That was a very intense day of weather and wind. You just can’t imagine all those things that really happened and how quickly those things can get out of control. I have such a new-found respect for nature and what it’s all about and under those conditions for those men to watch them try to put out the fire in freezing conditions and all the different elements they had to deal with. There’s no way to prepare for things like that. They gave everything they had, and a few of them paid the ultimate price.
“My respect and sincerity and love and admiration of what they do, it’s hard to put it into words.”
Source: The Boston Herald.
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