Tragedy, Chaos Usher In New Year - January 1, 1978
On New Year's Eve, January 1, 1978 a three alarm blaze at 172 - 174 Pearl Street claimed the lives of a veteran Chelsea Fire Captain, two young brothers, and their babysitter, in a tragedy that has stunned the city. Dead due to the fire are Fire Captain James E. Trainor, 53, who suffered a fatal heart attack while fighting the blaze; the two youngsters, Dennis Elliot, 4, and his brother Michael, 2 1/2; and their babysitter, Walter Juskiewicz, 26, of East Boston, a former Chelsea resident. Frantic efforts to revive Captain Trainor, the two youngsters, and Juskiewicz proved fruitless. A third youngster, a three month old baby, Sean Viele, a cousin of the Elliots, was saved from the blaze, as Juskiewicz, before he was fatally overcome, tossed the infant from a second story window to an unidentified passerby. The blaze, which also saw 13 local firefighters overcome or injured during its fury, started shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday night, New Years Eve.Fire investigators immediately determined that the fire was the work of an arsonist. The blaze was reported set in a first floor bathroom. Two infants had already been pronounced dead as a crew of men began working frantically on Walter Juskiewicz, who was barely breathing when they pulled him from the burning, smoke filled apartment house on Pearl Street. One fireman applied a respirator to Juskiewicz's mouth while another pounded on his chest in the vain hope his heart might start beating again. It was almost midnight on New Year's Eve. Thick smoke filled the air and flames could be seen jumping from floor to floor in the apartment house. Then word spread from the back of the house that Captain James Trainor had fallen, that yet another ambulance would be needed. Up and down the length of Pearl Street and along Fourth Street red blinking lights from the fire apparatus brightened the night sky giving the area a look of disaster. The crash of breaking glass and the rush of steaming water mingled with the constant drone of wailing sirens, as the mortally wounded were rushed to the hospital in ambulances.
	More fire apparatus filled the streets, making it impossible for traffic to pass. Hoses, miles of them, were strewn over over the streets like a thousand snakes while water was poured into the burning hell-hole. With thick black smoke billowing from the windows, Chelsea fireman John Chairadonna ran from the building and collapsed on the sidewalk. His face was wrenched, as if twisted by the unrelenting agony of smoke inhalation. Only moments before, two more Chelsea firefighters, Joseph Capistran and Joseph MacDonald, were taken away in ambulances with smoke inhalation. Meanwhile, the tragic scene behind the house, in the little backyard bordering Division Street, continued to unfold. A chaplain was summoned to deliver the last rites to Captain Trainor. As Trainor received the last rites he was being given mouth to mouth resuscitation by an ambulance driver so intent on what he was doing that everyone stood transfixed watching as one man tried to breath life into another
Fire Captain James Trainor is shown being carried to a waiting ambulance after having suffered a fatal heart attack on the roof of the burning building.
Two minutes later a small legion of men put Trainor on a stretcher and rushed him to an awaiting ambulance that took him to the Whidden Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later. Suddenly word began to spread that others were trapped in the apartment house and again, putting any thoughts for their safety behind them, Chelsea firemen ran into the burning apartment house to search for bodies or signs of life. But the apartment house was empty now and there was nothing to do but to put the fire out and pray for the guys and the little kids that were taken away. Though they didn't know it as they struggled to put out the stubborn blaze, four people who had been so much a part of life only an hour ago were now dead. The next morning, New Year's Day, a solitary ladder truck and a policeman stood guard over the gutted, six family, brick apartment house. Investigators picked through the rubble as television crews prepared for news stories that would be flashed into homes all across the state. "Another fire in Chelsea has claimed 4 lives..." As the word began to spread around Chelsea, the full enormity of the tragedy that had occurred on Pearl Street last night turned what might have been a Happy New Year into something less than that. Firefighters try in vain to revive Walter Juskiewicz. The babysitter, before being fatally overcome in the blaze, rescued a three month old baby.
	Editorial Comment from The Chelsea Record   No amount of words, either spoken or written, can adequately describe the feeling that has come over this community in the aftermath of the New Year's Eve fire that claimed the lives of two youngsters, their babysitter, and that of Fire Captain James Trainor. The fact that a suspect has been arrested and charged with setting the tragic fire really doesn't compensate for the losses suffered. The two youngsters can never be replaced in the broken heart of their mother. The babysitter can't be brought back to life. And the family of Captain Trainor will have to continue along the road of life without his strength, his guidance, and his love as a father and a husband.   Perhaps in Chelsea, we're too accustomed to hearing fire engines roar out of their stations, responding to alarms that seem to come all too frequently.   We never fully realize the value of our fire department and its men ... until a tragedy, like this one on New Year's Eve happens. Fire is a terrible thing, and being a firefighter, in Chelsea especially, has to be one of the most dangerous jobs around. How many of us would take the job ... really ... considering the dangers that exist each and every time the engine leaves the station? Fortunately for all of us, men like Jim Trainor take the job, and do it so well for so long in our behalf.   Unfortunately, many of us don't really appreciate it until its too late. Yet, as a saddened New Year's Day dawned - the realization that this kind and gentle man was indeed called by his maker from us - made so many of us realize that everyday every firefighter and policeman is always ready to lay down his life in the performance of his duty as they seek to serve the people of the city whom thay have taken an oath to protect.
Arrested at his home and charged with setting the new Year's Eve fire in which four persons perished was Ronald Z. Rhodes, Jr., of 78 Essex Street, center. Shown taking Rhodes into the local police station are Detective Herbert Sullivan, left and Detective Patrick McConaghy, right. Rhodes was charged with three counts of murder and one count of burning a dwelling house. He was arraigned in Chelsea District Court.