Thousands of firefighters, family members, officials, and wellwishers lined the streets of Boston this week to pay tribute to firefighter Robert “BK” Kilduff, Jr.

Kilduff died while fighting a fire in Dorchester, his last action reportedly telling his fellow firefighters to get back before the roof collapsed. His last action is credited with saving those firefighters.

On Monday at his funeral at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the streets of the South End were eerily quiet. If approaching on foot, one could audibly hear the usual noises of the downtown neighborhood slowly die away, with engines, tire screeches and honking slowly fading away.

Approaching the Cathedral from the west, you would see about a hundred firefighters standing in tribute to Kilduff. The silence was constant, giving way only to the occasional bird song.

As you hit Washington Street, the true magnitude of Kilduff’s impact on his fellow firefighters was apparent. Thousands of firefighters from all over New England lined the street for about a quarter mile. Firefighters from Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and even some as far as Texas and Chicago stood at attention as the ceremony progressed.

Kilduff was carried on top of a fire apparatus to the Cathedral for the service. The silence – before so pervasive – was broken by the crashing of drums and the keening of bagpipes. The Greater Boston Firefighters Pipes and Drums had come.

As the service began and hundreds filtered into the Cathedral, the companies started to break up and go their separate ways. The streets were covered in firefighters, and they seemed to own Boston on Monday.

Closer to Kilduff’s home in West Roxbury, residents gathered at Joe’s 320 Cafe. Joe’s started up a fundraiser on Tuesday evening with raffles, prizes, auctions and other contests. Owner Chef Joseph Adamo said when he heard the family was in need, he and others put together the fundraiser. Adamo said he will always remember Kilduff for his kindness and dedication to the community.

“It’s BK, he had been BK and the family for six years,” he said. “I loved the guy. We talked a lot, we spent a lot of time together, he’s special to me, he’s special to the staff and special to everybody.”

Adamo became choked up at this point.

“That’s why we’re doing this, and the only reason why. He was just an amazing human being.”

Adamo said once he heard what had happened, he and the staff stepped up.

“I said we got to do something, and here we are,” he said. “We’re family here, we take care of our own, and he was definitely a part of our family.”

Adamo said they will be donating all proceeds of the night to the Kilduff family.

“All proceeds go to the family,” he said.

Boston MA Local 718 President Sam Dillon was there as well. He said Kilduff set an example in his community as someone who would do anything to make life better.

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“Nobody stepped up for the community like Bobby Kilduff did,” he said. “To see the response here from the community that he protected and died for, it’s incredible. Somebody like Joe saw what happened and his immediate reaction was to step up, get involved, give back and support, which is everything Bobby was always about. To see people handling this situation in the way that Bobby Kilduff did, it’s really touching. It means a lot to all of us.”

Dillon said Kilduff left a bit of himself in everyone he met.

“Whether you knew him for five minutes or five years, he imparted who he was and what he was about onto those people, which is why you see so much of the tremendous support from the neighborhood, the community, firefighters, first responders, everybody across the country. That’s just the kind of person Bobby was. He would be doing things like this. Now it’s time for people to do that for him and his family.”

Organizer Kara Quinn helped out with the Raffle, and said they chose Joe’s because he spent a lot of time there.

“He was a staple in Joe’s,” she said. “He had his own seat when he came in to have breakfast here. Everybody knew him here, and everybody in the community knew him. When Joe found out, it just shook him, and we thought ‘What can we do for the family to celebrate him’? And that’s what Joe’s doing right now. This is amazing. This is West Roxbury, this is what we do. And West Roxbury is an amazing community, and police and fire are their own community. Everybody steps up here to help each other out. That’s just what happens.”

Resident Abi Champion said she met Kilduff at Joe’s and said he was just an amazing friend.

“He and his girlfriend would come in, and they were just lovely and generous,” she said. “I live in West Roxbury, so this is my community too. We would get together and have a couple of drinks there and he loved Bamboo in Dedham, so we would go there for Mai Tais.”

Champion said Kilduff’s spirit and love for his people was so strong, it was almost fantastical.

“You would think you were making things up when you talk about him; it’s hard to believe he was just one person,” she said. “He touched a lot of people and obviously something like this is really hard for the people who care about him, so I think action is kind of the best way to give back and I think this is exactly what he would be doing for somebody else. People have come out of the woodwork to help.”

A fellow firefighter who asked to go by ‘Fritz’ said he trained with Kilduff, and it had an effect on him.

“He was a great man, a great father and he was all about his family,” he said. “He loved the job and spoke a lot about his family. He loved teaching the guys and gals on the job, and I learned a lot from him. We trained together. Everything you heard about him is true. He was a great man.”

While the Joe’s fundraiser is over, there is currently a GoFundMe campaign for Kilduff’s family that, at the time of publication, has raised more than $141,000 for his family. To donate, go to https://gvimes.link/kilduffdonate