Firefighter
William Henry
Rescue 1
Laid
to Rest
on September 20, 2001
The
Big Red Truck
Henry Jr., who was known as Bill or Buddy, had a galaxy of friends
and admirers that stretched from the Ladder 24 firehouse on
West 31st Street to the paddle tennis courts at wind-swept Jacob
Riis Park in the Rockaways. He spent his vacations in places
like Brazil, and his free time fixing up houses for people like
his mother, Ethel. People would compliment his work; Mr. Henry
tended to agree with them. "Yeah," he'd say, "it's a beautiful
thing." His competitive streak ran deep. "He would say to me,
you know, I go to more fires than you do," said John Dopwell,
a former colleague at Ladder 24, where Firefighter Henry was
assigned before moving on to Rescue 1, also in Manhattan. He
also let all kinds of post-conflagration messiness build up
on his coat and helmet, as a sign of how hard he worked. "Outside
of his family, that job was what he lived for," said another
friend, Paul Stewart. For a while, he moonlighted as a security
guard at Laura Belle, a nightclub in Times Square. "I was his
boss, but in all honesty, he was my boss," said Joanne O'Connor,
the club's director of catering and special events. "He was
always telling me what to do." Once Ms. O'Connor made a demand
of her own. "I asked him, when are you going to take me for
a ride in the fire truck?" It became a joke between them. Then
one day, the huge red Rescue 1 pulled up in front of Laura Belle,
packed with firemen on their way back from a call. In clomped
Mr. Henry, who said, "Let's go for a ride." Profile published
in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 29, 2001.
Newsday
Article