John Collins
Firefighter
Ladder 25
This
article was taken from Legacy.com
Future Fireman at Age 4
When
John Collins was 4 years old, his father took him to a Bronx firehouse. That is
when he decided what he wanted to do. It took a while, with entrance exams delayed
because of a legal dispute, so he joined the Police Department first before becoming
a fireman in 1990.
The
oldest of five children, Mr. Collins, 42, organized family events, like two weeks
each year on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, or a benefit concert on the aircraft
carrier Intrepid in Manhattan, followed by a night on the town with his sisters
and their husbands. He lived in the Bronx, lifted weights and bought groceries
for neighbors who were down on their luck.
He
never talked much about his work, his sister Eileen Byrne recalled, because he
did not want to worry his parents. "We teased him, said he was the only fireman
who never went to a fire," she said.
That
is not how they remember him at Ladder Company 25 on 77th Street. On Sept. 11,
he was supposed to go to another firehouse to fill in. It was called out before
he could get there. When Ladder 25 was called, he jumped on the engine. "We
had seven firemen on the rig instead of six," said another fireman, Matt
O'Hanlon.
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