Robert “BK” Kilduff Jr.’s son and daughter say they were always aware of the dangers of firefighting, but they also knew that their father saved countless lives.
The pain of losing their father is raw, a week after Kilduff died when he fell out of a window while battling a roaring three-alarm blaze in Dorchester last Saturday night.
“It’s unbelievable,” BK’s son, Mason Kilduff, 22, said. “You can never expect it. It’s always on the back of your head, like it’s a ‘what if,’ especially with this job.”
Mason added that his father always set up arrangements for firefighters to mourn fallen first responders, no matter if they died in the line of duty or off the job.
“You never really expect it to happen to you,” BK’s son added, “but we were always aware of the dangers of the job. But I always think about the amount of lives that he saved, himself, … it is unbelievable.”
On Friday, Mason, a Marine; his sister, Hanna Jane Kilduff, 24, studying education; and their father’s longtime girlfriend, Jess Spruell, visited the Boston Fire Rescue 2 station. There, they opened up about their hero’s life and the legacy that he leaves behind.
“He loved his job,” Hanna Jane said. “He loved the people he worked with. He was really proud of the work that he did.”
Just hours before responding to the Dorchester house fire, Kilduff, a 24-year veteran of the force and third-generation firefighter, assisted in a technical rescue, saving a man trapped in an MBTA elevator shaft.
At the scene, Kilduff and his crew stopped flames, shooting through the roof of a three-decker on Treadway Road, from spreading to adjacent houses, saving property and possibly even more lives.
A mayday was called after Kilduff reportedly fell from a third-floor window.
“I always knew that my dad was kind of the best,” Mason told reporters inside the fire station his father worked out of, “whether it was saving lives in a fire, all the volunteering stuff that he did. We were talking about it last night, the lives that he saved that he didn’t know he saved.”
“Being the guy someone could go to,” Mason added of his father, “he didn’t even know that person needed someone to talk to. He was that guy all of the time.”
Though firefighting proved to be one of Kilduff’s main passions, his family said that they will always remember what he did off the job, as a volunteer, as a longtime partner, and as a father.
Outside his job, Kilduff volunteered for the Gary Sinise Foundation, supporting veterans, first responders and the families of fallen heroes across the country.
“He was a hero outside of just being a firefighter,” Hanna Jane said. “I know that people have talked about him as a coach, as a mentor, and obviously as a father. I mean, in every facet of his life, he was always looking to help the people around him. You could be a hero in a lot of ways. He was a hero in all of them.”
Now, the community has rallied to support Kilduff’s family. The Greg Hill Foundation and the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts have raised over $90,000 in separate fundraisers. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has also said it will pay off the mortgage on Kilduff’s home and the kids’ student debt.
Hanna Jane spoke about how she and her father took a trip to Disney World last year. Mason laughed about how he and his father landed on a Duck Boat with Patriots players in the Super Bowl rolling rally parade after the team beat the Seahawks in 2015.
Spruell reflected on how BK, her longtime boyfriend, surprised her family by flying across the country to see her two daughters in Seattle.
“I think making memories was really a priority to him,” Hanna Jane said. “That’s something he always instilled in us: If you have the opportunity to do something, if you’re mulling over a trip that you want to take that you want to do with your family, you should always say yes because you never know how much time you have left with them.”
The fallen firefighter’s wake will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Avila Church in West Roxbury on Sunday, and his funeral will start at 10 a.m. on Monday at The Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Washington Street in Boston.
“I just want to emphasize how much he loved being a dad,” Spruell said. “He was so strong for them. And I got to see the other side of what he had to do to be the best dad, and I’m just so proud of him. I’m going to miss my best friend.”
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Family members (from L to R) Jess Spruell, Hanna Jane Kilduff and Mason Patrick Kilduff speak about as of Robert ‘BK’ Kilduff meet with the media at Rescue 2’s firehouse. (staff photo by Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
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