Spotlighting the firefighters who ‘saved New York’

For Glenn Usdin, photography isn’t just a hobby or job, but a tool to preserve decades of firefighting history and knowledge around the New York metro area and beyond.

Usdin recently hosted a lecture at the Bayport-Blue Point Library, in partnership with the Johnny Mac Foundation, for the library’s remembrance series, which is honoring the stories and legacies of first responders leading up to and following the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

For over 50 years, Usdin, who was a 15-year member of the Massapequa Volunteer Fire Department, has captured the scenes of fires alongside the faces and stories of those who put them out.

In 2023, Usdin published his nearly 300-page book “They Saved New York,” which features photographs and around 90 profiles, written by Dan Potter, of New York Fire Department (FDNY) firefighters of different generations.

“The challenges that FDNY faces are unlike any that any other city fire department in the United States faces,” Usdin said. “One end of the Bronx to the other end of Staten Island is at least an hour. They’ve had everything from high-rise fires, tenement, department, and house fires, store fires, factory fires, hazardous materials incidents, and it’s just a very well-run fire department.”

Usdin’s connection with the FDNY began as a child fascinated by the stories of working in the 1970s South Bronx told in Dennis Smith’s book “Report from Engine Co. 82.” The late 1960s through early 1980s were known as the FDNY’s “War Years,” according to Usdin. Being able to take photographs and partner with fellow firefighter Potter to write profiles on firefighters that “saved New York” during his turbulent time for his book was “an honor.”

After becoming obsessed with all things firefighting in the 1970s, Usdin said he’d drive out from Massapequa to wait outside Engine Co. 82 in the South Bronx, and followed the trucks as they’d respond to calls. Usdin said he later became good friends with Smith, the writer of the engine company’s book, and later publisher of Firehouse Magazine.

Along with photographing scenes of fires, Usdin was an associate publisher of Fire Engineering magazine in the 1980s, worked in the fire apparatus industry, and served as chief of the Lancaster Township Fire Department in Pennsylvania from 1991 to 2006.

While talking with Smith around the COVID-19 pandemic, Usdin became inspired to write a book preserving the memory and history of the FDNY during its most difficult periods like the “war years” and 9/11. About a week before Usdin was set to photograph Smith in Florida, the firefighter author died at age 82.

Among the profiled firefighters are Willy Knapp of Engine Co. 82, who put on his gear for the photoshoot for the first time since his retirement in 1990, and Tom Simmons of the same company, who Usdin photographed on his 91st birthday, and quipped about working before firefighters wore oxygen masks.

Other firefighters profiled in the book include Joeseph Pfeifer, former first deputy commissioner of the FDNY, and was chief of Battalion 1 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Pfeifer was among the first firefighters to arrive at the World Trade Center and established an incident command post in the North Tower lobby. Hundreds of firefighters, including Pfeifer’s brother Kevin, climbed up the North Tower and died during its collapse. Pfeifer’s story was made famous by a documentary filmed by French brothers Jules and Gédéon Naudet as the attacks happened.

FDNY members who also are members of volunteer fire departments including Massapequa, where Usdin is from, are featured in the book, like Chris Howard. Howard’s father George was a Port Authority Police Officer who was killed on 9/11. The attacks motivated Howard to follow in his father’s footsteps serving as an emergency responder, and Usdin photographed the young firefighter working out of ladder 157 in Brooklyn.

Potter, who wrote the profiles in Usdin’s book, was also at the World Trade Center on 9/11, having rushed to the scene while at a class on Staten Island. Potter’s wife Jean worked on the North Tower’s 81st floor, but managed to escape. Throughout the day, Jean and Dan Potter thought they lost each other, and a photograph of Dan sitting a bench captured his despair. It wasn’t until that night when the couple reunited after searching Lower Manhattan for each other.

Among the tragic and unbelievable stories that came from 9/11 involved firefighter Robert Galione, who worked out of Rescue Co. 2 in Brooklyn. Galione arrived to the firehouse after a crew left for the World Trade Center. With around seven other firefighters, the remaining crew gathered their tools and hopped onto an MTA bus, which transported them to Lower Manhattan.

Usdin said the bus driver stayed at the drop-off site until around 7 p.m. that night, waiting for the firefighters’ return. With nobody coming back, the driver thought everyone perished and tearfully drove the bus back to its depot in East New York.

Seventeen years later, while responding to a small fire, some of the firefighters on that bus arrived at the bus depot in East New York and found the driver who drove them to the World Trade Center, shouting in excitement. Usdin said the driver thought they all died, and never told her story to anyone.

“Once a year they go and they thank her for what she did,” Usdin said.

Across the nearly 300 pages of “They Saved New York,” readers can learn about other remarkable and heroic stories from the men and women who helped save New York City during its most turbulent years. The book is currently sold out, but Usdin is expecting a second edition soon.

The Bayport-Blue Point Library and Johnny Mac Foundation will continue its remembrance series with a panel discussion on Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 6:30 p.m., featuring Tom Richardson, former FDNY chief of department, and Kathy Vigiano, retired NYPD officer and widow of detective Joseph Vigiano, and president of Survivors of the Shield.