Early in the morning of April 9, 1978, Frank Porpiglio Sr. received a phone call telling him that his 24-year-old son, Frank Porpiglio Jr., had just perished in a house fire on the Syracuse University campus.

The fire began when one of the tenants lit a candle in a Styrofoam wig stand and left it unattended. After the fire department arrived at the scene, Porpiglio and three fellow firefighters – Stanley Duda, 34, Michael Petragnani, 27, and Robert Schuler, 31 – entered the house in search of SU students thought to be trapped in the house. While inside, scalding steam caused by triggered sprinklers prevented the four men from escaping, and they eventually lost their air supply and suffocated to death. All the tenants had escaped safely before the firemen had entered the house.

When his son told him he wanted to be a firefighter, Porpiglio had worried about such a phone call. He worried about the hazards involved in an occupation in which one must put their lives on the line every day to save others. However, Frank Jr. wanted to save lives.

‘He did what he had to do,’ Porpiglio said. ‘I wasn’t too happy. It’s an awful job.’

On Saturday, the 27th anniversary of the fire, a ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. at the new Martin J. Whitman School of Management building located on University Avenue near where the house once stood. The ceremony will honor the fallen men and dedicate a memorial plaque to them. The plaque will hang in the northwest corner of the lower level of the building near the precise location of the house. This also happens to be near the fire control center where firefighters go when they receive a call in order to assess where sprinklers or alarms have been triggered within the building.

David Berg, director of executive education for the School of Management, said that the plaque would praise the valor of the firefighters.

‘Those firemen came and gave their lives to save (students),’ he said.

The event is being organized by the Syracuse Fire Fighters Association Local 280, IAFF – the fire fighters union – and the university. The idea for a memorial on campus came in 1998 at the 20th anniversary ceremony when James Ennis, president of the Syracuse Fire Fighters Association, promised the victims’ families that he would try to create a memorial for the men. Ennis received support from George Burman, the former dean of the Whitman School, and Charles Barletta, the former dean of the University College.

Ennis will attend the ceremony, which, he said, not only serves as a reminder to the community about the services firefighters provide but also as a reminder to the firemen themselves.

‘These events tend to remind our rank and file that our profession is a dangerous one,’ he said, ‘and sometimes (our own members) die.’

Ennis did not know the four men who were killed in the fire, but he said lack of a personal connection does not lessen the blow when a fellow fireman is lost.

‘Any time a firefighter dies in the line of duty, it’s like you’ve lost a family member,’ Ennis said. ‘Firefighters are traditionally a fraternal bond.’

Mayor Matthew Driscoll will speak at the event before the unveiling of the plaque.

‘This plaque reminds us that each and every time a firefighter responds to an emergency they put their life on the line for the safety of the residents of this city,’ Driscoll said in a news release. ‘These four fallen firefighters are in our thoughts, and it is our fervent prayer that tragedies like this won’t ever happen again.’

Robert Cole Jr., who lived in the house in 1978 while he attended law school at SU, will also speak at the ceremony. When the fire happened, Cole was out of town visiting friends and has attended past memorial services in honor of the firefighters.

Family members of the lost men will also attend the ceremony in remembrance of their relatives. Due to a chronic back problem, however, Porpiglio, will not be able to attend.

‘I’m heartbroken I can’t make it,’ he said. ‘I think it’s a good idea.’

Porpiglio said even without his fireman’s helmet, his son left an impression on the people he met.

‘He always left a part of himself to people he knew,’ he said.

Porpiglio’s daughter and Frank Jr.’s older sister, Angela Simonds, will attend the ceremony to represent her younger brother.

‘It’s been a long time coming,’ Simonds said in reference to the memorial. ‘It’s nice to know that (the firefighters) are not forgotten.’

Simonds described her only sibling as a fun-loving man who showed a deep compassion for everyone he met.

‘He was a fun type of guy,’ she said. ‘(He was) always happy and always there for you.’

Simonds said Porpiglio’s daughter, who was only a couple of weeks old when her father died, will also attend the ceremony. Simonds thinks it will teach her about the courage of the father she never knew.

‘He was my brother,’ she said, ‘and I’m proud of him.’

Published on April 7, 2005 at 12:00 pm