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One Tough Time, One Tough Man

Car crash, house fire not enough to stop Tewksbury cop Paul Doherty
By Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl, amayer-hohdahl@lowellsun.com
Article Last Updated: 03/08/2008 05:07:05 PM EST




Tewksbury police Officer Paul Doherty Jr. looks over the runins of his in-laws' home at 8 Lockwood Road in Friday. He fled the Jan. 21 blaze with his wife, 2-year-old son and his in-laws. (Sun/Julia Malakie)


There was no smoke wafting though the house.
Not even a crackle as the fire slowly worked its way up into the attic.
As he sat in the living room watching Law & Order, the only thing that Paul Doherty Jr. noticed was an unusual orange glow coming from the porch.

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When he pulled back the shades, all he could see was flames.
Hearing his yells, Doherty's mother-in-law, Janice Deveau, and his wife, Michelle, rushed out of the Wilmington house, their 2-year-old son Jacob in tow. But his father-in-law, Ronald Deveau, could only think about saving the home he had lived in for more than four


Paul Doherty Jr.'s Toyota sedan after his near-fatal crash on Nov. 22. COURTESY PHOTO


decades. The two men tussled as Doherty tried to drag the 71-year-old away from danger.
Suddenly, there was the noise of splintering glass. To Doherty, it sounded like a car driving over a patch of ice. Only this time, it was coming from a sliding door just an arm's length away -- the only barrier between the two men and the raging fire.
The day was Monday, Jan. 21.

It would be Doherty's second brush with death in two months.
The call started out like many others for Tewksbury Capt. Michael Sitar Jr.
It was a single-vehicle crash. Serious. A Toyota had hit a mailbox and a telephone poll before wrapping itself around a tree near the intersection of Salem and County roads. "It was 2:04 a.m. on Nov. 22 --
last Thanksgiving," Sitar recalled this week. "The reports on the radio indicated that it was a possible fatal. But the one person inside the car was alive when we got there."
Sitar then looked at the man's face. All he could think was: "Oh, crap."
The driver was a 20-year veteran of the town's police force. A "really good kid." The only Tewksbury officer who had joined Sitar's fellow firefighters in New York City to "work the pile" after 9/11.
It was Doherty. Screeches



He's back on the job no small feat given what he's been through. On Nov. 22, a car crash left Tewksbury police Officer Paul Doherty Jr. with a broken neck, several broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. Then, on Jan. 21, he and his family escaped a blaze that destroyed his in-laws' Wilmington home. SUN PHOTOS / JULIA MALAKIE


filled the night air as firefighters cut off the car's roof and used the Jaws of Life to spread it apart. It took 15 minutes to get Doherty out of the wreck and into an ambulance bound for Lahey Clinic.
It seemed like an eternity to Sitar.
"We usually have people out of there within seven to eight minutes. But he was wrapped up good," he said. "I was a little bit worried that he wouldn't make it."
He almost didn't. The crash left Doherty with a broken neck, several broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.
"All I remember is sliding off the road and thinking, 'This is going to hurt,' " he said. "It must have been black ice."
He spent nine days in the hospital, weeks in a neck brace. It felt good being back at his



Tewksbury police Officer Paul Doherty Jr. and his father-in-law, Ronald Deveau, look over the charred remains of Deveau's Wilmington home yesterday. It was a close call for both men.


in-laws' Wilmington house, especially after a local Lions Club donated a hospital bed to Doherty for his recovery. He was also looking forward to soon moving back into his own Tewksbury home, which was undergoing an extensive renovation.
After another stint in the hospital to have his appendix removed, things seemed to look up for Doherty. His spleen had been patched together well enough not to be taken out. The fracture in his neck was quickly healing.
The neck brace came off on Friday, Jan. 18.
Three days later, the fire struck.
The glass in the sliding door shattered, and the flames from the other side came rushing in from the porch toward the two men before being sucked up toward the oxygen that had accumulated high up in the cathedral ceiling.
Doherty believes it was the saving grace for him and his father-in-law. Had there been a lower ceiling, they probably would have been "toast," he said with a strained smile.
As the two men ran outside, Doherty heard the howls of his beagle, Cody. He was still locked in his cage, just feet from the front door. So Doherty ran back in to let him out. Both man and dog high-tailed out of the house as it was engulfed.
"It was horrific," Doherty said yesterday. "Being there, when it actually happens, is real scary."
The blaze was caused by a pile of smoldering coals on the back porch. Deveau, thinking they were extinguished, had placed them there in two pans. It took six hours for them to burn through the plastic and ignite the porch.
"All we can do is look to the future," Deveau said as he gazed at the scorched home yesterday. "But one thing is for sure. There will be no wood stove in this home again."
Friends and co-workers rallied around the Dohertys after the fire. The Police Department was planning to put them up in a hotel, until friend and local developer Mark Ginsburg invited them into his home.
Doherty shakes his head as he explains how Ginsburg has steadfastly refused to accept any money for the favor. He is also donating the use of the Tewksbury Country Club hall for an upcoming fundraiser.
"I'm old-school. I don't like taking stuff," Doherty said. "But I just can't imagine anybody dealing with all this without the support that I've gotten."
There has been one more heartbreak for Doherty to live through recently.
Cody was killed two weeks after the fire when he escaped from the home of Doherty's parents and got run over by a car.
"We buried him in my backyard," he said. "My dad and I were standing there with snot to our knees."
None of it has stopped Doherty from returning to work at the Tewksbury Police Department. He doesn't like "sitting around doing nothing," he says. But he admits he may have gone back a little bit too early.
"All this took a lot out of me," he said. "But you know what? I'm still above the ground. I'm still able to wake up in the morning, take a deep breath, give my kid a hug and a kiss. That's all that counts." A fundraiser for Paul and Michelle Doherty will be held on Thursday, March 27, at the Tewksbury Country Club, 1880 Main St. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. The evening will feature a performance by MOJO, snacks and raffles. Tickets, which are $20, are available at the Tewksbury Police Department, 918 Main St. For more information,

visit http://www.mojobandrocks.com.

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