Peter
C. Martin
A Sensitive Soul, Calm in a Crisis September 27, 2001
As of yesterday, Peter C. Martin, a lieutenant with Rescue 2 in
Brooklyn's Crown Heights section, was still missing. A veteran
firefighter with numerous decorations for bravery, Martin, 43,
of Miller Place, is among seven members of the 30-member squad
listed as missing since the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers.
Martin's wife, Alice, said accounts she's heard had her husband
in the stairwell of one of the towers marching people out. "I
have three boys here that need me desperately, so I have to maintain
the 'command post,'" she said, using an expression she said her
husband would use. "That's why I'm so calm. We get a lot of strength
from my husband." A stay-at-home mom, Alice Martin was seeing
her boys on the school bus Sept. 11 when one of her neighbors
broke the frightening news: A plane had slammed into one of the
Twin Towers. She raced home and switched on the television just
in time to witness the unthinkable: a second jetliner rocketing
into Tower Two. Watching in horror, she knew her husband's surely
was among the search and rescue companies summoned to the blazing
towers. Martin's wife and three boys hadn't seen or heard from
him since he left for work the previous night to begin a 24-hour
shift. Stunned by the images that filled her television screen
that day, she repeatedly called her husband's fire house, Alice
Martin said. But the phone just rang and rang, she said. "That
evening, when he didn't come home, I started calling hospitals.
I figured I had to start some place," she said. About midnight
on Sept. 11, Phil Ruvolo, the captain of Martin's rescue squad,
phoned with the news she had been trying hard not to face: Her
husband was missing. Martin's career in the search and rescue
squad and as a firefighter spans more than 22 years. Before being
promoted to lieutenant in 1995, he was a fireman at Rescue 2 and
at Squad 252 in Brooklyn. He was born in Jamaica, Queens, and
grew up in Valley Stream. He graduated from St. Agnes High School
in Rockville Centre and earned a bachelor of science degree in
criminal justice from St.John's University, where he met his future
wife. They married in April 1984. His neighborhood friend and
fellow firefighter Bob Maynes, chief of Battalion 41 in Brooklyn's
Flatbush section, said Martin is extremely devoted to his boys,
Daniel, 13, James, 8, and John, 6. Maynes, whose own sons are
in the Boy Scouts with the Martin boys, said his friend rarely
misses an event involving the boys. Professionally, Martin is
"extremely dedicated," Maynes said. Martin's dedication took him
to Oklahoma City, where he joined in the search and rescue operations
after the bombing of the federal building. Home from his eight-day
stint clawing through the rubble for survivors, he talked about
how the devastation brought tears to his eyes, his wife said.
He is a very sensitive soul, "very cool and calm, even in a crisis.
He's the best. The worst part is not having an official answer."
-- Collin Nash (Newsday)
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