A sidewalk memorial as seen on Treadway Road in Dorchester on Monday, May 25, 2026. Seth Daniel photo
A veteran Boston firefighter was killed while battling a three-alarm fire at a Dorchester house last Saturday night (May 23).
Robert T. Kilduff, Jr., of West Roxbury, died from injuries after a fall from a third-floor porch as he and other firefighters knocked down the blaze on Treadway Road, a tightly-packed residential side-street off Savin Hill Avenue between Dorchester Avenue and Pleasant Street.
Firefighters responded around to 18 Treadway Rd. at 8:15 p.m. for a house fire that quickly went to three alarms as it spread to all three floors before firefighters knocked the bulk of it down about 20 minutes later, the department said, adding that they were able to keep it from spreading to neighboring houses.
However, around 8:50 p.m. a “mayday” was declared after Kilduff, of Rescue Company 2 in Egleston Square, fell off the third-floor porch. Boston paramedics and EMTs transported him to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Fire Commissioner Rodney Marshall called his loss “heartbreaking. Bobby, affectionately known as BK, was a dedicated firefighter,” he said, “a proud member of a family deeply rooted in the fire service, and a respected brother to all who had the privilege to serve beside him.
“He embodied the courage, commitment, and selflessness that define this profession.”
Added Mayor Michelle Wu, “Boston lost a hero.” She noted that Kilduff “came from a family of firefighters, and he held this calling as the highest duty to serve and protect.
“Because of his actions, working alongside his fellow firefighters, every resident came out of the flames safe and sound,” she said. “On behalf of the City of Boston, we extend our deepest condolences to the Kilduff family and all of Bobby’s loved ones.
“The family has given everything in service to this country and this city. We ask for your prayers for his family, for all our firefighters, and for our city. Boston will forever honor Firefighter Kilduff’s dedication and service with the most profound gratitude.”
Gov. Maura Healey has ordered flags at state buildings lowered to half staff in memory of Kilduff, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.
Kilduff’s colleagues at Roxbury’s Rescue 2 fire house remembered him as a “Jake’s Jake” – a term of high praise for firefighters – whose reputation stretched far beyond the department.
Rescue 2’s commander Lt. Greg Kelly called Kilduff “the quintessential rescue man,” saying there was hardly a firefighter in Division 2 “that can say that they can’t remember a time where Bobby Kilduff didn’t help them in a fire.” He described Kilduff as one of the department’s most skilled firefighters, saying, “BK was one of the most tactically and technically proficient firefighters on this job.”
Said Capt. Sean Linnell said in a press conference on Sunday. “I always relied on him. He was my go-to guy.”
Firefighters recounted how, in the days before his death, Kilduff had helped rescue a girl threatening to jump from a building and assisted in saving a homeless man trapped in a confined space at the Fields Corner MBTA station.
“He was the heart of this firehouse,” Kelly said. “He is irreplaceable.”
As the fire broke through the roof, firefighters climbed a ladder to fight it (photo by Boston Fire Department).
Veteran Rescue 2 firefighter Victor Gabor, who worked alongside Kilduff for more than 14 years, fought through emotion as he described his longtime friend. “It’s true he was a Jake’s Jake,” Gabor said. “He had charger. He was the man. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do.”
Another Rescue 2 firefighter, Elector Tavares, said Kilduff embodied what the public hopes firefighters will be. “Bobby Kilduff is exactly the definition of what you would imagine a true firefighter should be,” he said. “He is who you want coming for you when you’re in trouble. He always stressed … make sure you always made time for your family and your kids, because you don’t know your day,” he said.
Capt. Kevin Preston of Engine 42 said Kilduff balanced the pressures of firefighting with fatherhood in a way younger firefighters admired.
“He loved his kids so much,” Preston said. “He was that example that all of us as firefighters and fathers and parents, we strive to be.”
Kelly said firefighters instinctively believed Kilduff would be the one responding when a mayday call came in at the scene of the fatal fire.
“My first thought was that BK would be going to whoever that firefighter is,” Kelly said. “That’s where he would be.”
He later added: “BK was exactly where he wanted to be at the time death called. He was in the building, he was on the fire floor, and he was taking charge.”
“BK is Rescue 2,” he said.
A “Go-Fund-Me” set up to benefit Kilduff’s family — he has two adult children, a girlfriend, and her children—had raised more than $17,000 as of Monday morning (May 25). Funeral services will be arranged through Gormley Funeral Home in West Roxbury. No dates have yet been announced for the rites.
