By DAVID C. NEWMAN

Special to the Crimson

BOSTON—With an estimated 300 New York City firefighters killed in Tuesday’s terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Massachusetts’ top national politicians expressed their support for the Boston Fire Department, holding a small press conference Friday at the city’s Purchase Street fire station.

In brief statements delivered in front of a handful of firefighters and TV camera crews, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy ’54-’56 (D-Mass.) and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) assured the firefighters that their work was not unappreciated.

“We wanted to come by and just say thank you for who you are and what you do,” Kerry told the audience of about 15 uniformed firefighters. “After losing six bave firefighters in Worcester,” he said in reference to a Dec. 3, 1999 fire, “the concept of 200 in one incident in New York is hard to grapple with.”

“Firefighters came [to Worcester] from all over Massachusetts,” Kennedy said. “It was an incredible tribute.”

The delegation of Boston firefighters represented included two—John Cetrino and Eddie Loder—who have already returned from stints assisting the rescue effort in New York. A third, William Dewine, is still in New York, where his brother—a New York firefighter—is among the missing.

Firefighter Steve Cloonan said the rest of the department is ready to go to New York if called upon. He said he did not know of any firefighters in the department who did not add their names to a list of willing volunteers.