A Fireman's Fireman
Capt.
James Amato, a member of Squad 1 in Brooklyn, loved putting out
fires. No sitting around the firehouse for him; he wanted to be
in the middle of the action, wherever it was. After years as a firefighter
in one of the busier ladder companies, he applied for the elite
rescue division, so he would always be one of the first people responding
to a crisis. "He liked to be one of the guys who made a difference,"
said his brother, Lee Amato, a firefighter from Cooper City, Fla.
"He liked to get off the piece and run in with the men. He was a
fireman's fireman." The brothers spent vacations together, sometimes
in Florida and sometimes on the ski slopes. Lee Amato, the elder
of the two, called his brother "my dearest friend." Captain Amato,
a father of four who lived in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., and was a college
wrestler, had close calls throughout his life. As a toddler, he
barely survived a bout of spinal meningitis. And earlier this year,
he told his men to file out of a burning building while they waited
for a hose line to be set up. A few seconds after they got out,
there was an explosion. "He was laughing about it," said his brother.
"He said, 'Timing is everything.' " Profile published in THE NEW
YORK TIMES on October 27, 2001.
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