Capt. Brian Hickey

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Capt. Brian Hickey, 47, had a 20-year career with the FDNY, a captain since 1998. His next promotion was posthumous. Hickey was also an instructor in the Nassau County Fire Academy, and a fire commissioner in Bethpage where he had begun his career as a volunteer at 18.

Two of his men had recently died in the “Father’s Day Fire” in which a hardware store in Brooklyn burned, igniting a propane tank that exploded the building and buried three firefighters. Hickey carried their mass cards in his helmet along with a photo of his family. 9/11 was his first day back on the job after recovering from his own injuries.

Regarding the dangers of the work, Hickey told his wife, “you can never lose sight of what our job really is.” He also said, “Ask a young firefighter why they joined and they’ll say, ‘I want to fight fires, I want to save lives.’ But it’s not really your main reason for doing it. It’s to belong to the club and do something exciting.”

Hickey had four children with his high school sweetheart. Just the week before he’d danced with his daughter at her Sweet 16 party.

Although in command of Rescue 4, on the morning of 9/11, Hickey had volunteered for an overtime shift and was the covering Captain for Rescue 3 in the Bronx. It was with those seven men that he responded to the WTC.

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Firefighter Michael Cawley

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Michael Cawley, 32, always wanted to be a firefighter. His dad used to take him to visit Rescue 4, Ladder 163 and Engine 292, just blocks from his house. He loved those visits and climbing into those trucks. He joined the FDNY in 1995.

Just a couple months before 9/11, Cawley was hoisted up to cut a man free who had been dangling unconscious from the electrical lines he’d been repairing. He brought him down to safety and saved his life. The medal he received as a commendation for valor was presented to his family posthumously after 9/11.

Regularly assigned to Ladder 136 that shares a firehouse with Rescue 4 and Haz-Mat Company 1, that Tuesday morning, Michael had just finished covering a shift at Engine Co. 292. He had been relieved early but stopped to have breakfast that morning with Rescue 4. When the call came in, he joined them for the ride in to Manhattan.

Cawley’s brother had been planning to move to California. After 9/11 he stayed in NY and joined the FDNY instead. He came close to losing his own life in a fire in 2005, but took three years to recover and returned to the force.

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Firefighter Raymond York

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Raymond York, 45, spent almost two decades with the FDNY. He had planned to retire at the end of the year. Alphabetically York is the last of the 343.

On 9/11, York was still assigned to light duty while he recovered from an injury and was working at the Fire Zone, the FDNY store in Rock Center. It turned out that teaching fire safety to kids was almost a second calling for “Fireman Ray.” He was apparently quite good at it. When the Towers were hit, York hitched a ride downtown with a TV crew heading south. When they got stuck in traffic, he caught a ride with an ambulance and reported in to the command post. He was found on 9/12 under the rubble the North Tower piled on West Street.

“He loved his family, his country, the FDNY, and of course, the Yankees,” his wife said. “When he loved something, he loved it 150 percent.”

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B. C. Lawrence Stack

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BC Lawrence Stack, 58, spent six years in the Navy, ending with a tour in Vietnam in 1966. After returning to New York, he had a short stint with the NYPD before following family tradition and joining the FDNY. His father had 38 years with the department, his brother retired as a Captain after 25 years, his brother-in-law retired as a Lieutenant after 25 years and both his sons were appointed in 1994.

Stack was appointed in 1968, made a Lieutenant in 1981, a Captain in 1984, Battalion Chief in 1990 and assigned to the Safety Operating Battalion in 1994. This meant he was called to all fires of two alarms and higher, becoming the on-scene safety officer. After 25 years as a firefighter and fire officer assigned to Manhattan and Brooklyn, he knew every type of building in the city. His job was to be another set of eyes on the fire for the men, or – as his wife called it – their “sixth sense,” to keep them safe. After a line-of-duty-death, he would spend months interviewing everyone involved and writing the reports. That morning he had been finishing up his report on the Father’s Day Fire which had taken the lives of three FDNY earlier that year.

Stack was in the lobby of the Marriott when the South Tower fell. He was initially trapped but managed to wriggle free from his turnout coat. He then helped a lieutenant pull Lt. Citarella free from the rubble. Stack was last seen helping a civilian with a severed Achilles tendon who couldn’t walk. He and Ray Downey were on West Street helping that civilian when the North Tower came down on them.

The first of his six grandchildren – and the only one he had a chance to meet – was born the week before 9/11.

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Firefighter Lawrence Veling

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Lawrence Veling, 44, was a 15-year FDNY veteran and the senior man on duty on September 11th. As soon as the first plane hit, Engine 235 was expecting the call. Veling took the time as senior man to address the seriousness of the fire ahead, telling them to stay together “because it was the kind of horrible fire where firefighters get hurt.”

He had three kids, aged seven, six and two. When playing with youngest son, Veling was surprised to learn he had a facility for drawing cartoon characters. He became quite the neighborhood sidewalk chalk artist. Veling would draw, his son would cry, “More! More! More!”

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Firefighter Lee Fehling

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Lee Fehling, 28, was also a member of the Wantagh Volunteer Fire Department. The bagpipes were his favorite, but could also play the sax, clarinet, piano and accordion.

When he was 18 he took the police and fire exams, and was accepted in the NYPD, although it was three years before he was assigned. After 5 years he switched over to the FDNY and was two and a half years in. Fehling loved being a firefighter. He also loved playing practical jokes and was almost notorious for the range of telephone pranks he played on friends. His mother swears he was born laughing.

Fehling had two daughters, but he would never meet his youngest. She was born that October.

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Firefighter Francis Esposito

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Francis Esposito, 32, spent seven years pursuing his goal of becoming a New York City firefighter, a feat he accomplished when he graduated from the Academy in 1999, just weeks before his wedding. They delayed some of their honeymoon plans so Esposito could dive right in to his probie training. Shortly thereafter he bought his beloved midnight blue Harley. He was known for wiping all fingerprints off the paint and polishing the chrome.

He became quite skilled in construction after helping his father and brothers build their family home and their summer home upstate.

His cousin, Michael Esposito, was also among the 343.

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Firefighter Nicholas Chiofalo

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Nicholas Chiofalo, 39, loved to work. Besides the FDNY, he was also the Fire Chief at the volunteer department in Selden, NY. And he had a side job as a pyrotechnics engineer with Grucci, the company that sets off the 4th of July fireworks for NYC. He was hired to that position because of the quality of the condolence letter he sent the company after a fireworks accident killed several employees. 
Chiofalo had just finished his 24-hour shift that Tuesday morning but did have a chance to call his wife to say he was going in to Manhattan. “When he called me that morning and said he was going I knew he wasn’t coming back,” she said. “He loved being a fireman. He loved saving lives. This is what he did.” The men of Engine 235 entered the South Tower and were never seen again.
 Chiofalo left behind one son, 13.

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Lt. Stephen Bates

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Lt. Steven Bates, 42, stood 6-feet tall and weighed 235 pounds. This18-year veteran was actively studying for the Captain’s exam. He was an avid golfer and an experienced marathoner and triathelete.
 He loved the camaraderie and ensemble teamwork of firefighting. Bates literally had no other family beyond his friends and fellow firefighters. They were his family. His two big dogs were his “babies.”

 

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Firefighter Edward White III

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Edward White III, 30, had been with the FDNY for three years. Nicknamed “Teddy,” White was a big sports fan: watching football, playing golf or softball, coaching baseball and basketball in the neighborhood. This big Yankees fan enjoyed collecting baseball cards and other memorabilia. One of five siblings, White’s brother Billy joined the FDNY after 9/11. He left behind a 2-year-old daughter.

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