- Joined
- Jan 15, 2025
- Messages
- 321
Each battalion in the FDNY was told to supply on firefighter to be part of the testing for N.A.S.A.s Project F.I.R.E.S. I was in Ladder 18 at the time and was chosen based on the fact that I was in the Fire Science program at Rockland Community College and later at C.U.N, Y. "John Jay". I became a friend of Ff. Dick "Richie" Fanning L-19. L-19 was one of the FDNY units actually testing the project F.I.R.E.S. equipment. Outside of the Nomex turnout coats the NASA SCBA was the only part of the tested equipment that I know the FDNY adopted. Dick Fanning and I remained friends even after he later Promoted all the way to Deputy Chief. Dick covered for a while as Captain of TL-18 and Ladder 6, so we fought some serious fires together, in Manhattan on the Lower East Side & Chinatown. Dick Fanning is no longer with us, but I will always remember him as a great firefighter, fire officer and Chief. Captain Bob Rainey FDNY Engine 26 retired.