Prepared for Emergencies

Timothy Haskell trained his dalmatian, Blaze, to "stop, drop and roll." He took the dog to the school where his sister, Dawn Haskell-Carbone, teaches. "Timmy would say to the dog, 'Your clothes are on fire! What do you do?' " she recalled yesterday. "She would stop, throw herself on the ground and roll. He would ask the kids, 'What if you smell smoke?' The dog would crawl on her belly over to a door. Timmy would say, 'Feel the door first to see if it's hot.' And the dog would put her paws on the door."

Timothy grew up in Seaford, N.Y. — on a skateboard, then a dirt bike, and always on the water. As an adult, he loved scuba diving and extreme games; he was getting his pilot's license.

Timothy, 34, and two of his brothers, Thomas and Kenneth, followed their father into firefighting.

"All my brothers, they all got perfect scores on their physical, and their tests were almost perfect," his sister said. "It was that important to them, that they worked hard at it."

Timothy's brother, Thomas, is still missing.
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 19, 2001.

 

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