Firefighter
Brian Sweeney
Rescue 1
Laid
to Rest
on November 28, 2001
Predestined
Firefighter
When he was 18 months old, Brian E. Sweeney wore his father's
fire hat in a family picture. His parents said it probably
wasn't much longer before he decided to follow his father
and join the New York Fire Department. "I don't remember it
ever being a question," said his mother, Mary Ann. Some 20
years later, he began going to work with his father, Edward,
who was a commander at Engine Company 301 in Hollis, Queens,
until he retired in 1993. "He really seemed to enjoy it,"
Edward Sweeney said. "He asked a lot of the right questions.
He was very interested in the job." Two years after his father
retired, Brian Sweeney took a job in Connecticut with the
Waterbury Fire Department, and began training. But Firefighter
Sweeney, of Merrick, N.Y., left that job when he learned that
he had been accepted into the New York Fire Department. For
the next six years, he worked at four fire companies in three
boroughs and started a romance with Melissa Price, also of
Merrick. During those years he studied the specialty of rescue,
and on Aug. 1, 2001, he was assigned to Rescue Company 1 in
West Midtown Manhattan. He was 29, one of the company's youngest
firefighters. "It was a dream come true for him," Mrs. Sweeney
said. "He loved rescue work. The more dangerous, the more
exciting, the more challenging — that's what he loved to do."
Last Sept. 11 was his day off, but Firefighter Sweeney worked
overtime at his former firehouse in Maspeth, Queens. Profile
published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on August 25, 2002.
The
story behind the eagle on the back of the T-shirt that led
to the ID of FF Brian Sweeney
Photo
of Brian enroute to WTC
Newsday
Article