USA. Massachusetts. 1999. On December 3rd, 1999 the fire in Worcester started with a candle in an abandoned warehouse. It ended with temperatures above 3000 degrees and the men of the Worcester fire department in a fight for their lives. The fire killed 6 men. The family of Joe McGuirk. From left: Linda, Emily, and Everett. In mid-July 1994, back when Joe was working as a contractor, he started building his own twenty-five-hundred-square-foot house. He finished the framing before the month was out and moved in by November. When Joe set his mind to something, he got it done. He became a Worcester firefighter in 1997. The warehouse was his first big fire.