After The Fall:
Remembering
The Men Of Maspeth

By LIZ GOFFOnce each week, Janice Waters leaves her Glendale home to bring her husband a cup of coffee. The task itself it not unique – it is Waters’ destination that makes it an act of enduring love.

This Maspeth Firehouse is home to the FDNY's HAZ MAT Co. 1 and Squad 288. The units lost a total of 19 men on September 11.

"He always had a cup of coffee in his hand," Janice Waters said. "There is a story in one of the firehouses where he worked, about how the men always knew which officer was working by how much coffee was brewing. He always had two pots brewed," she said.

So each week, Waters – coffee in hand – visits her husband’s grave, where she leaves the steamy brew for the man she married almost 20 years ago.

Waters’ husband, FDNY Special Operations Captain Patrick Waters perished on Sept. 11, while helping victims escape from the south tower of the World Trade Center.

Patrick Waters was one of 19 men from the Maspeth firehouse who rushed to their deaths on Sept. 11. Queens Haz Mat Co. 1 (which Waters commanded) and Squad 288 suffered the greatest loss of any firehouse in New York City when the Twin Towers collapsed.