Firefighter Thomas W. Kelly, 50, “bled Dodgers blue so truly that he paid $1,420 for an original seat from Ebbets Field.” Nicknamed “Mr. Dependable” at the firehouse, he was a mentor to the probies.
Thirty years earlier, in September of 1971, when he was still a steamfitter, Kelly took the woman he would marry on their very first date to his construction site: Two World Trade Center. A $20 bill got them past the security guard and he took her to the 40th floor to see his work. His job had been to spray the asbestos insulation. The WTC had been grandfathered in when the rules about asbestos insulation were changed nationally and it was the last major building built that way.
He joined the FDNY in 1984 because, as his wife said, “he had a love of saving people.” Kelly left behind two sons and four cats.