1992----566 Occupied Structural Workers 1995----404 OSW's 1996----3262 Runs 1881 Workers 402 OSW's 1997----3629 Runs 1997 Workers 444 OSW's 1998----3316 Runs 1863 Workers 413 OSW's 1999----3400 Runs 1953 Workers 451 OSW's 2000----3756 Runs 2435 Workers 463 OSW's
Following is an article that originally ran in "Catholic New Yorker" on "October 6th 1999". It details how Tom Foley, like the other 343 other members of the FDNY were heroes well before they ran into the world trade center.
Tommy was an accomplished bowhunter with five pope and young whitetails to his credit. We met in 1995 when I went to work at Squad 41. We immediately became friends…we hunted and fished together and fought fires together. The years I worked together with Tommy were some of the best times of my career.
In 2000 Tommy transferred to Rescue 3, Tommy always loved "big Blue" and we both kinda hoped that would allow his brother Danny Who recently joined the FDNY to come to the Squad.
On September 11th 2001 Squad 41 and Rescue 3 responded from the Bronx to the world trade center. Sadly Tommy and the members working in Rescue 3 and Squad 41 all perished that horrible day. 343 of my brother firefighter gave their lives that day.
The members of the FDNY along with the police department staged the largest rescue effort in history saving tens of thousands of lives. I myself will never forget the sacrifice they made that day. Join me in supporting our troops in the middle east and everywhere they work to protect our freedom.
Firefighter Tom Foley speaks in the simple terms of a man of action. Recalling the daring rescue he made last month of construction worker who was dangling from a safety rope off the side of a Manhattan building. Foley said, "I just wanted to get him down safely. To me, it seemed like a drill, with a little bit more excitement and mayhem."
The August 24 high-wire rescue was front-page news and brought a measure of celebrity to the athletic 30 year old who has been a New York City Firefighter for seven years. Almost as regularly as fire runs, calls come to the cramped, red brick South Bronx Squad house from newspapers, television and radio shows. He talks in a friendly, no-nonsense style, explaining to inquirers how going off the roof of a 20 story building on West 108th Street was just part of a job that brings similar challenges each day and maybe greater ones tomorrow.
How did it feel to be lowered by rope to a man hanging 120 feet off the sidewalk and guide him to the top of a ladder where two other firemen waited?
That morning I had the roof because I had the riding position, he said, explaining how daily assignments are rotated among the squad members according to where they ride in the truck. "The roof guy goes over. It was the luck of the draw."
This was Foley’s way of saying that any one of the five other guys on duty could have done the job just as well. The squad is "a big old family," and each member watches out for the other, on duty and off.
"All the guys want to make sure everybody gets home to their families at the end of the day," he said. "There’s not a guy in here who wouldn’t give the shirt off his back for you. It’s nice to have guys you can rely on."
As he was lowered down the side of the building toward the stranded construction worker, Roberto Hernandez, he was heard to speak comforting words; "How you doing, buddy? Everything is going to be O.K. We’ve got you now. You’re going home to your family."
"If I were in that situation, I’d want somebody telling me that everything is going to be O.K. ,"he said.
Luck and God’s guiding hand is how Foley describes his career. He joined the Fire Department out of college and got a break, by his estimate getting to Squad41, a special operations unit which responds to all fires and emergencies in the South Bronx ,Harlem and upper Manhattan. That’s a lot of territory, with a lot of accidents waiting to happen, he observed. Hazardous materials, confined-space rescues, subway derailments and underground fires fall to them. High-angle rope jobs come maybe once a year, but the crew trains for them regularly on the Squads three story firehouse on East 150th Street.
"Every day I go to work, it’s different. Every day, I have no idea what’s going to happen, he said. "It’s my call. I think God had me out to be a fireman."
It’s the day I nailed down. an interview with firefighter Foley and he’s just returned from a job in a South Bronx tenement, his nose still red from the effort and heat, his lungs coughing up small gusts of smoke. He sits at the round firehouse table with his buddy, Ed Walsh, who lowered Tommy from the roof on that Manhattan rescue last month. Both are near the end of a 24-hour shift but look strong and alert.
"You never sleep. You rest," Foley says.
Asked if Foley deserves the attention he’s been getting, Walsh looks at him with the mock smirk of a big brother and lets out a slow, "Well…maybe."
The fierce camaraderie known to soldiers in battle is evident. These men rely on each other each day for their lives.
"It was a private dwelling, two stories," Foley says, describing the recent call. "We were on the roof, cutting holes to vent the cockloft," the area between the ceiling and the roof through which fire can spread.
When the team cut the second hole, flames and smoke burst upward, and the roof began to buckle. They scrambled to the edges of the roof.
"We were looking for a way to get off," Foley recalls.
They were almost ready to jump across to the next roof Walsh adds.
"It’s a good thing the wind was blowing the other way or we would’ve been lit up," Foley remarks.
As they talk, their ears are tuned to the radio crackling out reports of fire and rumors of fire.
"That’s the Bronx dispatcher. It could be us," Foley says.
Walsh leans closer to listen. Duty does not call this time.
The code 1075 means fire in progress, Foley explains.
"When we hear that, everybody here jumps. There’s not anybody in here who doesn’t want to go to a fire," Foley says.
"Someone can go through this job and say they never get scared, but they’d by lying. You don’t think about it though. When the adrenaline gets pumping, you go."
He speaks with emotion about firefighter Peter McLaughlin, who perished in a blaze in Queens. He was a big-hearted, tough as nails ex-Marine sniper who literally showed young Foley the ropes.
"He died with honor," Foley says. "He did everything to the best of his ability. I shaped my career to that."
Such examples keep his feet on the ground these days when the media beckons, he says. People magazine wants a follow-up on last year’s feature of the sexist men in america in which Tommy appeared.
the glitter of celebrity will not draw him from his vocation though.
"Even if I won the $10 million lottery, I’d still be a fireman," he said.