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.