[1] The fire was started accidentally some time between 4:30–5:45 pm by two homeless people (Thomas Levesque and Julie Ann Barnes) who were squatting in the building and had knocked over a candle.

[4] The 6-story building, previously used as a meat cold storage facility, had no windows above the ground floor and no fire detection or suppression systems.

[2] At around the same time an off-duty firefighter from neighboring Auburn passed the building on I-290 and radioed his Fire Control to report smoke coming from the roof.

The owner of a neighboring business informed a police officer at the scene that a homeless couple had been squatting in the building and firefighters initiated a search, believing they could still be trapped inside.

Worcester Fire Department District Chief Michael McNamee said: "There was a light smoke condition in the upper levels of the building to the point we didn't even have our face pieces on.

"[9] The layout of the building and the absence of windows left firefighters without a secondary escape route and prevented ladder and rescue operations.

The searchers' task was made extremely difficult by the large size of the building's interior, the layout, which was a maze of corridors and meat lockers, many with identical flush-handle doors, and the highly flammable composition of its insulation.

Ding On "Tony" Kwan, the building's owner,[25] was not charged, but families of the deceased firefighters sued him for wrongful death for negligently failing to keep out squatters.

[29][30] The Boston Stock Exchange suspended business at 11:00 am during the memorial and observed a minute's silence while a bell was rung in tribute on the trading floor.

[31] City leaders planned to erect a memorial to the men in Institute Park, adjacent to the Worcester Fire Headquarters station on Grove Street.

In October 2000, Leary held the first "Celebrity Hat Trick" fundraiser including a hockey game, a golf tournament and a dinner.

Fox, Kiefer Sutherland, Tim Robbins and Rick Moranis, and a Boston Bruins Alumni Team, coached by Bobby Orr and including Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk, Derek Sanderson and Cam Neely.

The proceeds went to Worcester and central Massachusetts fire departments to fund equipment, technology, and training, and to the families of firefighters who died or were injured in the line of duty.

"[42] In September 2003, Warner Bros. hired director Danny Boyle to shoot the project, provisionally titled Worcester Cold Storage.

[47][48] In late April 2004, Warner Bros. and Image Entertainment, the production company, issued a joint statement saying that the making of a film the size and scope of Worcester Cold Storage was "a complex process that needed the support of various groups and individuals, including firefighters.

"[48] Frank Raffa, president of Local 1009, responded that firefighters "may one day drop their opposition" to the movie, "But we want to wait until the kids of our fallen comrades grow up.

"[47] The 2004 movie Ladder 49, directed by Jay Russell, told the story of a fictional Baltimore firefighter who is trapped inside a warehouse fire, and his recollection of the events that got him to that point.

[citation needed] The Boston Herald wrote: Ladder 49 isn't the movie that Hollywood threatened to make about the Worcester cold storage fire; opposition from the fallen firefighters' friends and family put the kibosh on "3,000 Degrees" last year.