cont'd from Peter's Home Page

He and the mayor had spoken only minutes before. In a news conference late Tuesday night, the mayor described how earlier in the day, as he was leaving for his own command post, he chatted briefly with Chief Ganci and told him, "God bless you, Pete." The chief "would never ask anyone to do something he didn't do himself," said Howard Safir, who was his direct superior as fire commissioner from 1994 to 1996, the year Mr. Safir was named police commissioner. "It didn't surprise me that he was right at the front lines. You would never see Pete five miles away, in some command center." A 33-year department veteran, Chief Ganci managed all uniformed personnel, and was also responsible for the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. Mr. Ganci joined the department in the 1960's, serving in engine and ladder companies in Brooklyn and the Bronx during an era of crisis, when fire companies battled arson fires almost continually in the city's poorest neighborhoods. He rose to lieutenant in 1977, captain in 1983 and battalion chief in 1987, and was promoted to deputy chief in 1993, when he was working in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Chief Ganci was placed in charge of the Bureau of Fire Investigation in 1994 after Mr. Safir was appointed fire commissioner. "There was a problem between the fire marshals and the uniformed firefighters," Mr. Safir said. "I needed a uniformed chief who could bring them together. It was a highly charged situation, and in months, he turned the fire marshals into a great operation." In 1997 Chief Ganci was appointed chief of operations, the second highest uniformed position in the Fire Department. In 1999, he was named acting chief, after his predecessor was injured in a car accident. His appointment became official last January. A resident of Massapequa, N.Y., he is survived by his wife, Kathleen; two sons, Peter 3rd, a firefighter assigned to Ladder Company 111 in Brooklyn, and Christopher; and a daughter, Danielle. Editorial Obituary published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 13, 2001.

 

Back to Peter's Home Page