Thomas Cullen III was studying for his Lieutenant’s exam. Studying was nothing new to him. He was constantly reading up about all sorts of firefighting rescue techniques like confined rescue. He studied the structure of buildings he didn’t know well to make himself familiar with their peculiarities. When an undergraduate, he applied for the law boards and the firefighter exam at the same time. He came from a family of lawyers but dreamed most of being a firefighter. He aced the FDNY exam but still had to wait four years for a slot on the force. This 31-year-old firefighter left behind a two-year-old son and a model train set on the living room floor that they played with together almost nightly. Many nights after his son went to sleep Cullen would add a turn or bridge or something new to the set.