Friday, September 11, 2015

New York's Bravest

This is a photograph of my father-in-law fighting a fire with his fire company in 1960 when he was a probie. They didn't have any protective gear in those days other than a jacket or their helmets. All of the people in that photo have either passed from cancer or are very sick. The stuff they breathed in and were exposed to are just unimaginably to us today. Still while other people ran away they ran in.


He served in Brownsville Brooklyn in the 1960's and 1970's and retired in 1980. It was a very busy house with ten runs a day. When he had seniority he could have transferred to a country club house on Staten Island where there was one run a month. But he thrived on the action. He wanted to put out fires and save people. He did. Many of them. Even though he had rocks and bottles and the occasional gunshot sent his way. Because that is what fireman do.

The Fire Department is very different now in a lot of ways that I will not go into today. The saying used to be be "give me four drunk fireman and I can put out any fire you got."  The Department is not like that anymore. It is still full of brave men who rush in to help people in their hour of need. 

Today is a day to remember and salute them. They truly are New Yorks Bravest.

9 comments:

bagoh20 said...

If it's anything like all that sex they get in that show "Rescue Me", then sign me up. Those boys be scoring like Wilt the Stilt.

Props to them - then and now.

rcocean said...

Great pictures and props to your father in law. i knew a guy who a fireman in our small town, and frankly it was a pretty cushy job even back then. Quite different in NYC.

Trooper York said...

Today is a bad day for him.

He went to bunch of funerals after 911. As did I.

Mainly the sons of guys he worked with. Including three of the guys in the first photo who had sons or grandsons die at the Towers.

Today is always a very sad day.

edutcher said...

Nice tribute, Troop.

Kudos.

"Still while other people ran away they ran in."

I read something like that about the firemen in Japan when the B-29 were firebombing the place to the ground.

Code of the firemen.

My best to him.

Trooper York said...

These photos are part of a series of black and white photos that were taken during the 1960's and 1970's. I have recorded a few reminiscences about his work as a fireman. I thought it might make an interesting book someday. I have heard some of his stories many times at family gatherings and I would love to share them with a wider audience.

chickelit said...

These photos are part of a series of black and white photos that were taken during the 1960's and 1970's. I have recorded a few reminiscences about his work as a fireman. I thought it might make an interesting book someday. I have heard some of his stories many times at family gatherings and I would love to share them with a wider audience.

A very worthwhile endeavor. Kudos!

bagoh20 said...

I'm nearly illiterate, but in my opinion, you write very well, Troop, so do the book. Do any book. A book about how N.Y. has changed in your perspective during your life would be interesting to me, but I would need it in audio book form.

chickelit said...

@bagoh20: Troop is also planning to write a Western along with his "Eastern."

I want to narrate the audio version of Troop's Western

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Great post, Troop.

The world needs to know these stories and the heroism they gave.