By Bob Von Sternberg
The Star Tribune
RICHFIELD, Minn. — Fifty-six years after his death, Richfield firefighter Jim Spillane will be remembered for his sacrifice.
On a June night 56 years ago, Jim Spillane died while fighting a house fire in Richfield set by an arsonist.
Spillane, who was overcome by smoke from the blaze, is the only Richfield firefighter ever to die in the line of duty.
But his name is not among the 194 listed on a modest memorial to Minnesota’s fallen firefighters at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
That’s about to change, thanks to the efforts of Richfield’s current fire chief, who’s part of an effort to move the memorial from an obscure spot at the airport to the State Capitol grounds.
“It’s almost like he’s looking from his grave and seeing that it’s his time to shine,” said Spillane’s daughter, Mary O’Rourke. “It just makes me happy he’s going to be remembered after all of these years.”
Fire Chief Wayne Kewitsch called it “absolutely satisfying -- especially for the family -- that Jim Spillane’s finally being recognized for giving his life for the people of Richfield.”
In 1955, as Richfield was in the midst of the postwar suburban housing boom, the city was hit by a string of arson fires set at homes that were under construction.
On the night of June 15, two were reported, and Spillane was part of a crew that responded to one in the 6400 block of 5th Avenue S.
He collapsed while fighting the blaze in the home’s attic area and died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. He was 32 and left behind a wife and two young children.
“Maybe that person will go on and on and won’t be caught,” his wife, Florence, said the next day. “All I know is that I can’t have my husband back.”
The arsonist was never caught.
Fast-forward to a few weeks ago. The Minnesota Fire Service Foundation is in the midst of trying to raise $600,000 to relocate and expand a memorial that’s little-seen by members of the public -- unless they’re picking up their baggage at the airport.
Part of the fundraising entails soliciting contributions from fire departments across the state. Kewitsch got a call from Eden Prairie Fire Chief George Esbensen, who’s leading the effort, asking for his department’s donation.
“I said we’re definitely in because we’ve got a name on the memorial,” he said. “George said ‘No, he’s not on the list.’ And all I could think was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Wow -- this just isn’t right.’ ”
“I know I hadn’t seen anyone from Richfield on the list, so that’s how this whole thing got started,” Esbensen said. “And George worked so diligently. Spillane’s name is now on the list.”
Kewitsch had undertaken some documentary spadework, tracking down contemporary newspaper accounts at the city and state historical societies and forwarding the information to the state Fire Marshall’s office.
As for why Spillane’s name wasn’t already on the memorial, he could only guess that “probably somebody didn’t talk to somebody. Back then, the fire service wasn’t all that organized compared to today.”
The foundation is about two-thirds of the way toward its fundraising goal, which would allow it to dedicate the new memorial next October to coincide with National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend, so “Mrs. O’Rourke wouldn’t have to visit her father in such an inglorious location,” Esbensen said.
Coincidentally, the department was preparing to honor Spillane by naming the training room in its new station after him, so Kewitsch was already in touch with O’Rourke.
While asking for some family photographs of her father, Kewitsch mentioned the omission of Jim Spillane’s name on the memorial.
“He told me that his name had never been listed. I never even knew there was a memorial,” she said. “But I said I’d like it if he could be remembered.”
Beyond knowing the basic fact that her father died fighting a fire, O’Rourke has only belatedly learned the details surrounding his death.
When her mother died three years ago, O’Rourke discovered in her mother’s basement a cache of newspaper clippings about the fire. “I’d never seen any of them before, so for the first time in my life I knew what really happened,” she said. “I never realized it, but the arson happened just three blocks from our house.”
Her belated re-acquaintance with a father she barely remembered (“I was just 2 1/2 when it happened”) didn’t end there.
By way of a family member, she also got a collection of letters her father had written to his parents during his service in the Coast Guard during World War II. “I’m 59 and I’ve finally gotten to know him better,” she said.
O’Rourke said her mother would have been “just thrilled to learn that he’s going to be remembered. I wish she could be here to read about it.”
Jim Spillane “has been forgotten for a long time,” she said. “He died without ever being honored, a forgotten man. Not any more.”
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