Firefighter Christopher Blackwell, 42, “was born with no sense of fear,” according to his mother. Although he was drawn to things that were dangerous, his wife said, “he wasn’t reckless.” This 20-year FDNY veteran spent 13 years with Rescue 3. He was a specialist on collapsed buildings and lectured on the subject to firefighters across the country. Tim Brown reported seeing Blackwell in the lobby of Tower One. They kissed on the lips “because that’s what we always did to shock other people. (Chris) said to me, ‘This isn’t good, Timmy.” I said ‘I know’, and ‘be careful.’” That was the last Tim saw of him.
The father of three, Chris’s son Ryan was inducted in to the FDNY in May of 2013.
This portrait is one of two I altered for the painting because in his FDNY photo, Chris was the only firefighter not looking into the camera lens. I changed his eyes to look at us.