Firefighter Thomas Hannafin
Ladder 5
Laid
to Rest
on September 20, 2001
In
a Brother's Footsteps Thomas Hannafin was a high school and
college basketball star on Staten Island. When he followed his
eldest brother, Kevin, into the Fire Department, he joined Ladder
Company 5 in Greenwich Village. The captain there, John Drennan,
a football coach on Staten Island, was building the firehouse
into an athletic powerhouse, Kevin said. Then Captain Drennan
and two others in the company died from injuries in a 1994 fire.
"Being so young on the job, it affected him deeply," Kevin,
a member of another company in Brooklyn, said of his brother.
On Friday, Kevin was part of a search team, including members
of Ladder 5, that found the bodies of Thomas, 36, and four other
members of his group in the mound of trade center rubble. Kevin
carried his brother's helmet out of the wreckage. "It was the
proudest moment of my life," he said. "It means a lot for firefighters,
in firefighter tradition, that members of their company carry
them out. That day, I was part of that company." Profile published
in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 19, 2001.
SI
Live Article
Remembering
Thomas Hannafin
