A life lived and lost for others; Death of Jon Davies rekindles the city's heartache.

• Position: NEWS

Byline: Scott J. Croteau; Linda Bock; Aaron Nicodemus; Steven H. Foskett Jr.

WORCESTER - The parallels to the Dec. 3, 1999, Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building fire were hard to ignore yesterday.

Just five days after the 12th anniversary of the blaze that killed six city firefighters, state and local officials were again gathered in the cold on Franklin Street, sharing the awful news about a raging fire. This time, Firefighter Jon Davies, 43, a 17-year veteran of the department, was killed when he rushed into a burning three-decker at 49 Arlington St. shortly before a partial collapse of the structure. His partner, 14-year department veteran Firefighter Brian Carroll, 40, was injured, and had to be rescued from the house.

In 1999, six firefighters were killed after a desperate search for a homeless couple believed, at the time, to be inside. It was later determined they had left before firefighters arrived. Last night, investigators were still searching at 49 Arlington and elsewhere for the resident whose unknown whereabouts prompted Firefighters Davies and Carroll to search the house.

Flowers from the Saturday anniversary of the warehouse fire were still fresh at the memorial in front of the Franklin Street Fire Station yesterday as firefighters secured black bunting hung from the second-floor windows on a blustery afternoon. Firefighters lined the periphery of the media representatives as state and local officials shared details about yesterday's fatal fire in front of the station, erected in 2008 from the rubble of the warehouse fire.

The connections were not lost on state Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan, as he tried to wrest a silver lining from the tragic circumstances of the day.

"(As someone) who stood at this particular site 12 years ago, that was a very sad, sad day in the history of the fire service in Massachusetts, and here we return again for a sad occurrence in Worcester," Fire Marshal Coan said. "What I do know is after the tragic Worcester fire in 1999, the city of Worcester's Fire Department led this state and this country in learning how to better protect our firefighters and operate in the unsafe environments we find ourselves in."

He said he wasn't on Arlington Street at 4 a.m., but was "well-assured, in my mind, that the Worcester Fire Department did everything right. They lead by example, and their example led to a safer, and a better, method for firefighters working in these unsafe buildings."

According to fire officials, firefighters were summoned to 49 Arlington St., in a packed neighborhood of three-deckers, around 4:20 a.m. The response quickly rose to three alarms. One resident told firefighters another person might be trapped in a rear bedroom. Firefighters Davies and Carroll, a 14-year veteran of the department, went back...