Strong of Heart by Thomas Von Essen

Author:Thomas Von Essen [Essen, Thomas Von]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-062-04148-7
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2003-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

In our department, the most elite group of frontline firefighters we had belonged to the Special Operations Command. SOC, as we called it, comprised all our units with special skills. They included the Hazardous Materials (haz-mat) Unit, structural-collapse experts, fire rescue units, and, at the time I became commissioner, two squads of elite firefighters who responded to all major incidents in their areas.

SOC had long been run as a small fiefdomlike corner of the department. It kept itself separate from many other operations, like a commando squad in the military. It had its own headquarters, over on Roosevelt Island, and even its own budget.

Its chief, Raymond M. Downey, was a tough, taciturn man in his late fifties, with piercing eyes, a shock of snow-white hair, and a poker face matched by a dry sense of humor—so dry that you might not know at first when he was joking. Ray was somewhat of an anomaly in our department, a man who had built an outside reputation because of his expertise in special operations such as building collapse. He had overseen the rescue operation after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and had headed the federal Urban Search and Rescue team that led the recovery following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. His extensive outside network and reputation gave him an unparalleled Rolodex when it came to tapping resources. It also won him the nickname “The Master of Disaster.”

Ray had joined the department in 1962, following in the footsteps of his two older brothers, and had worked in several different houses in his early years, including the Times Square area in Manhattan and Rescue Company 2 in Brooklyn. In 1977, as a new captain who worked at the training school, he had been picked to create the first special operations squad, Squad 1, a fully equipped engine company of elite firefighters, which also carried a full complement of ladder tools.

He next became commanding officer at his old Rescue Company 2, where he continued to sharpen his expertise. Rescue companies were our most elite units. They had originally been formed at the turn of the century to rescue firefighters, but had evolved into units that responded to all working fires, motor vehicle and industrial accidents, major emergencies, water incidents, and other atypical events.

What was great about Ray was that he didn’t limit his knowledge to the confines of the FDNY or the material he might need to master for his next officers’ test. He was a voracious reader of all kinds of texts, documents, books—anything that would expand his realm of knowledge in his chosen area. He never stopped trying to widen the scope of what he knew.

Ray was always trying to teach others, too—though he was known as an unusually tough and demanding boss. When I was president of the UFA, I regularly got reports from firefighters that he bent the union rules. His men weren’t allowed to go sick, it was said; worked overtime in violation of the union contract; and were required to undergo all sorts of additional training.

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