Funeral director saves bodies as East Greenwich funeral home burns

EAST GREENWICH, R.I. (WLNE) — A funeral director was called a hero after a fire tore through Hill-Skeffington Funeral Home in East Greenwich in the early morning of Feb. 2.

“I had never seen anything like that in person before, it was incredible,” David Ucci said.

Ucci said he got a call around 4:30 a.m. and immediately made his way to the building on Main Street.

“Standing in the parking lot, it was an absolute horrific scene,” he said.

As he watched the funeral home burn, Ucci said he was approached by a police officer.

He told the officer about the remains of four loved ones within the building, and with the help of first responders, was able to enter and remove the bodies inside.

“I kind of ran ahead of them by accident,” Ucci said. “It seemed like an hour, but after about 15 minutes everybody was safe and secure.”

Hill-Skeffington Funeral Home President John Skeffington recalled the horror of seeing the building go up in flames.

“All I could think about was to make sure the families are taken care of and, number two, I hope our insurance is adequate,” Skeffington said.

Skeffington added that it was a great relief that all of the bodies were saved.

“Somebody’s mother, somebody’s father, I mean god forbid,” he said. “We’re very lucky that it started on the second floor, and lucky that we were able to get them out as soon as we did.”

The bodies were brought to the Skeffington Funeral Home in Providence, and families were notified soon after.

“They were all grateful, understanding, pleased, so that was the most important part,” Ucci said.

Ucci has worked with the funeral home since he was 15-years-old, and he said he knew saving the bodies was the right thing to do.

“This is a unique profession, people call us, they entrust the care of their family to us,” he said. “They’re already going through a tremendous amount of grief and sadness to begin with, this would compound it tremendously.”

Ucci added that, if he had to do it again, he wouldn’t hesitate.

Hill-Skeffington Funeral Home’s office is now set up in a temporary building next door on 700 Main Street.