http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hamill-firefighters-bravest-article-1.1394368
Hamill: These firefighters who are 'aging out' are still the Bravest
Capt. Robert Morris of Rescue 1 and Firefighter Kenny Ruane of Ladder 16, both in Manhattan, will 'age out' at 65 this weekend, but after all they've been through they still want to work with FDNY, among the city's bravest.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Wednesday, July 10, 2013, 2:30 AM
Firefighter Kenny Ruane will retire this weekend at age 65. Ruane joined the FDNY on Sept. 5, 1970.
Between the two of them, they gave 83 years of firefighting service to this city.
This weekend Capt. Robert Morris of Rescue 1 and Firefighter Kenny Ruane of Ladder 16, both in Manhattan, will be “aged out” of the job at 65.
“I can still run up 20 flights of stairs,” says Ruane, a Brooklyn-born vegetarian who joined the FDNY on Sept. 5, 1970. “If I had my way, there’s no way I’d leave this amazing, wonderful job.”
“I can still do the job,” says Morris. "I just got hit with a calendar. It kinda snuck up on me.”
Growing up in Flatbush, Ruane never wanted to be a firefighter. “I wanted to be a ballplayer,” he says. “Or teacher. But in 1968 my big brother who wanted to be a firefighter said the city wasn’t hiring teachers; they were hiring firemen. I took the test.”
In those days, it was a pass-fail FDNY test that required candidates to scale an 8-foot wall. “My brother couldn’t get over the wall,” Ruane says. “I did. I took the job at 22 not knowing what to expect. I was trained in 26 Truck in Harlem by a legend named Capt. John O’Regan ,who taught us how to fight fires with team effort.”
In one of his first big blazes, he watched a firefighter rescue a baby . “It was just thrilling to see that little life saved,” he says. “I knew then this job was meant for me.”
Although Morris’ father was a firefighter, he didn’t always want to follow in his sooty footsteps. “I was sort of thrown into it,” he says. “I took the test in 1971 and was sworn in on March 19, 1973. I worked in the Bronx when it was burning, Harlem, all over the place.”
Morris became a legend , improvising rescues of fellow firefighters in Rescue 1 based in midtown .
In his early days, Ruane says, Truck 26 responded to more than 6,000 runs a year, often battling three big fires a night in an era before Scott masks and bunker pants. He was later transferred to Engine 91, Engine 39 and then settled into Ladder 16 for 31 years. Captain Robert Morris joined FDNY on March 19, 1973 and lost 11 colleagues from his unit on 9/11/ Sam Costanza Captain Robert Morris joined FDNY on March 19, 1973 and lost 11 colleagues from his unit on 9/11/
Ruane says across 43 years of service, he’d often run into Morris at big “jobs.”
The worst time they crossed paths was on Sept. 11, 2001, the darkest day in almost every New York firefighter’s life. “I lost 80 friends that day,” Ruane says. “Two guys from my house.”
“We lost 11 guys in my unit,” says Morris.
“I worked for a firefighter named Rob Curatolo on the Saturday night before 9/11,” says Ruane. “So he worked for me on Monday leading into Tuesday morning. He didn’t make it. I’ll never forget him.”
The next time Ruane and Morris ate the same smoke was at the 2007 Deutsche Bank job, where two firefighters lost their lives.
“My team became trapped in that fire,” says Morris. “Afterwards I said, ‘We were lucky today.’ Someone asked how I could say that after we lost two men. I said, ‘You weren’t up there.’ Some things you have to experience to understand.”
Like fighting fires and rescuing lives for four decades.
“I will go back to work in this field somehow,” says Morris. “So I see this as a break between jobs.”
“I went out to The Rock, where we train new probies, recently,” says Ruane. “I asked which of them would like to swap me their probie spot for my 43-year pension. Not one hand went up. I knew then that the equipment had changed over the years, but the hearts of the men who do this wonderful job had not. I have no idea what I’ll do with my time when I leave, but I will be leaving this job in very good hands.”
Thanks for 83 years of service, guys.
