Firefighter
Matthew Barnes
Ladder 25
Memorial Service was held
on
November 9, 2001.
On
a March afternoon two years ago, Matthew E. Barnes climbed to the
top
of a 100-foot aerial ladder to rescue 6-week- old
twins from a furious blaze on the Upper West Side. The ladder swayed
in the crisp breeze as Matthew Barnes took Isabella and Jacob Kalodner
from the hands of their distraught mother, Linda. Mr. Barnes, who was
honored at City Hall for the rescue, said at the ceremony that he had
tried to convince Mrs. Kalodner to wait for firefighters to reach them
from inside the building. "She
advised me she wasn't going to do that," he said. "I figured if she's willing
to pass her baby out a 10th-story window, I should take it." Mrs. Kalodner told
him: "You treated our children like they were your own. There's nothing I can
say but thanks." The compassion was easy. Mr. Barnes, 37, of Monroe, N.Y., loved
children, said Sean O'Brien, a friend and fellow firefighter from Ladder Company
25. Mr. Barnes and his wife, Susan, had three boys of their own, Matthew Jr.
12, Jesse, 10, and Thomas, 8. He loved to take them fishing. "Sue always had
a project for Matt to do around the house, but somehow Matt would manage to slip
out and go fishing with the boys instead," Mr. O'Brien said. "But the projects
around the house always got done. They were proud of their home."
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