Firefighter
Christopher Pickford
Engine 201
Laid to Rest on
January 4, 2002
He
Wrote Music, Prose, Studied Screenwriting
Christopher
Pickford never wanted to be anything but a firefighter, although
he had a number of talents.
Pickford,
32, also played the guitar with his band, "Ten Degree Lean,"
wrote music and prose, studied screenwriting and worked as a
paralegal in the Queens district attorney's office.
But
his heart was so set on firefighting that his parents, Linda
and Thomas of Kew Gardens, rejoiced with him when he emerged
as a firefighter with the last class of 2000. Just 18 months
in the service, he was assigned to Engine Co. 201 in Brooklyn's
Battalion 40.
When
his mother, who also works in the Queens district attorney's
office, learned of the disaster at 9 a.m., she called her son
in the Brooklyn firehouse. "I said, 'Tell them your mother
said you are not to go,' and he laughed," she recalls.
He was one of four men from his company who entered Tower Two
to search for survivors, 10 minutes before the tower collapsed.
"Chris
was young, but he had the makings of a great firefighter,"
Capt. Luke Lynch said.
To
his friends from Forest Hills High School, "Chris was the
glue that held us together," said his close friend, Amy
Whalley of Glendale. "He was the ringleader who planned
our activities. We called him 'Super.'"
At
6-foot-5, Pickford was "a gentle giant, with a wonderful
sense of humor," she said. "But he loved being a fireman
and wouldn't have changed anything, even now."
An
article about Christopher