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New York Firefighters Help Each Other Heal
'Brothers in Blue' Close Ranks to Cope with WTC Losses
 Listen to Beth Fertig's story.
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Lt. Rob Kirwan, whose firehouse lost nine men in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Photo: Vanessa Bertozzi
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March 11, 2002 --
New York City lost 343 firefighters on Sept. 11 -- and six months later, the emotional toll is still climbing.
Firefighters who had little time to mourn fallen colleagues during the chaos of the attack on the World Trade Center's twin towers now seek to close ranks and help each other carry on.
Nine of the dead worked at one firehouse on 29th Street in Manhattan. In a report for All Things Considered, Beth Fertig of member station WNYC visits with the surviving members of Engine Company 16 and Ladder Company 7.
The kitchen is the center of activity at the station. Crews pulling 24-hour shifts gather there to eat and to gossip -- and these days, to remember the missing. Lieutenant Rob Kirwan recites memories of moments shared with firehouse companions: "George eating his big breakfast... Richie doing his crossword puzzle... Bob Foti dumping water on somebody from the roof."
The firefighters at the 29th Street station are planning to build a "memory room" to preserve some of those moments. It will go right off the kitchen, with photos and keepsakes and all the cards that arrived in the aftermath of the attacks.
It's a family project. Those who work and live together at New York City's firehouses talk about being part of a "family" and a "brotherhood." They count on those strong ties and the fire service's history of self-reliance to help them through dark days.
Most of the firefighters here have declined formal counseling, choosing to talk about their feelings among themselves.
"No counselor has ever been trained to handle something like this," firefighter Joe Vizzini says. "They don't know what's going on. So we have self-healing process in the firehouse."
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NYC firefighter George Cain died at the World Trade Center.
Photo: Rosemary Cain
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Rosemary Cain, mother of firefighter George Cain, with Firefighter Steve Marsar
Photo: Beth Fertig, WNYC |
Joe Finley knows first-hand how firefighters operate when a crisis arrives. In 1966, his father was among 12 firefighters killed in a building collapse that was the department's single worst disaster before Sept. 11. He remembers how his father's colleagues supported his family. Finley went on to become a firefighter, too -- and now he's helping to look out for his brothers in blue.
"Since 1865 there have been guys that died in the line of duty," Finley says. "So the firemen have an intuitive way of dealing with this. We know what needs to be done."
The fire department's own outreach efforts draw on the strong bonds of firefighting families.
On Long Island, firefighter Steve Marsar has spent a lot of time at the home of Rosemary Cain, who lost her 35-year-old son George on Sept. 11. Marsar, who is trained in stress counseling, worked with George Cain at the 29th Street station. He was appointed a family liaison after the attacks, and was there to help Rosemary Cain through the desperate wait for final news of her son, to answer her questions and take her on a solemn visit to the ruins of the Trade Center.
"I wanted to know when my son was found, I wanted to know everything about the condition when he was found, to the best of their ability what happened to him," Mrs. Cain says.
"There wasn't anything we didn't talk about," Marsar says. "What everybody was feeling, what we were feeling, what we were doing, what we were thinking."
Things only a firefighter would know.
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