Interview with Retired Battalion Chief Tom Martin March 9, 2019

By Tara Byrnes Cummings

When did you retire?

I retired on December 31, 2001.  I was in my 40th year.  I did not complete 40 but I was close.

What made you join the Fire Department?

Well I actually I was in the Navy.  My older brother had been in the Navy ahead of me, when he left the Navy, he went to fire department and filed an application for me to take the test for the fire department. 

I had worked with Western Union Laboratories before I went on the job and I had no intention of going to fire department, but he filed it for me, for the test and he sent me a notice that the test was coming up.

So I put an application in for the Navy to get leave to go home take the test and because I only had a short time to go in the Navy, they wouldn’t grant me leave, so I missed the test, I came back to my old job at Western Union Laboratories on Hudson Street in Manhattan.  I received a notice in May that there was a special military exam in July in Manhattan for the fire department, so I took that exam.  It was a little different, it was 10 essays and 50 multiple choice questions, it was different than normal entry exam.

I came on the job in August of 1962.

I’d have to say I had a wonderful career, I was very lucky.  I started in Midtown my first seven years, in Engine 1 and Ladder 24. 

Later on, they formed the second sections up in Harlem, a friend of my Ray Brown was just assigned as a lieutenant there.  He was able to get me into the second section of 26 Truck and that was really a great thing because it was a very active firehouse.

So I guess that my mentor would have been Ray Brown.  Ray was a fireman in Rescue 1, that’s where I first knew him.  My older brother, who’s passed on, was a fireman in 65 Engine which was in the same quarters as Rescue 1.  I got to know a lot of those guys and one of them was Ray Brown.   Ray was promoted and he brought me up to the second section. He was my immediate supervisor in that company.  Ray, fabulous firefighter, great teacher, ended up as a Battalion Chief and he retired from the fire department and was involved with the Transit Authority.  He was the head of their Hazmat.

Ray’s office was in the World Trade Center.  The morning of the attack, he had to go to the Jersey office for another meeting.  So, he was over in Jersey when the attack occurred.  He was lucky.  That’s fate, a lot of stories about luck on that day, but a lot of bad luck and good luck. Yeah…

Ray was a great lieutenant.  He made a rescue when he was a fireman in Rescue 1, when there was a collapse with the 54 Engine involved.  Ray actually took a saw, and cut a hole, tunneled through the debris, crawled all the way in and he got I think six guys from 54 Engine out safe.  I remember him saying that at any moment, the rest of this building could have come down.  It was really quite a daring rescue. 

As a Chief he also made a rescue.  He was, I think in the 57 Battalion in Brooklyn and he got a medal for that also.  He got a class 1 for the first rescue for the collapse that was in the 1960s and shortly after that was the 23rd Street collapse.  So it was really kind of harrowing because we lost 12 guys at 23rd Street and then we had this collapse shortly after that.  So it was really harrowing but nobody, nobody was lost that the second collapse.

December 22, 1966 – “The Christmas Miracle.”

Did you like the job?

Life to me was absolutely wonderful.  I looked forward to going to work every day of 40 years.  I loved every day of it. The guys were great.   Funny, hardworking guys dedicated, but always, always a laugh.  We did a lot of fooling around, we had a lot of fun in the firehouse.

Then I went to 26 Truck, Ladder 62, the second section in the beginning of 1969. Right after it opened I went up there and that was great because I had a tremendous amount of fire duty.  A lot of experience and a great great firehouse.

I can’t say I have one favorite firehouse.  After I got promoted out of 26 Truck in September of 1973 and I went up to the Bronx and I ended up as a lieutenant in ladder 19 which was a fabulous firehouse Engine 50 ladder 19. In fact, my son followed me there. He did almost 20 years, until he was injured.

I was a Captain in Engine 216 and Ladder 108.  I was a Captain of the engine for one year.  I had a little problem with the Chief over there, so I went back to Harlem.  I was a Captain of ladder 14 for approximately 4 years and I was promoted to Battalion Chief, went to the Bronx and I spent the last 15 years as a Battalion Chief in the Bronx.  I retired in my 40^th  year out of the 3rd Battalion – 1226 Seneca Ave., Bronx (Quarters of Engine 94, Ladder 48) 

So, I feel I was blessed.  I didn’t have any really one great favorite firehouse.  I mean they were all good firehouses.  For 26 truck, I still go to the reunions there. In fact, Charlie Roberto who has been the captain of 26 truck for 20 years, just celebrated his 20th year as a captain.  He had a reunion for my old company, the second section.  In 2018, it was 50 years from the start of the company and we had quite a few guys who were still around that showed up, which was nice.  Again, I have to say I was blessed to have a great career.

Do you miss the job?

I miss the job – the first couple of years I was out.  I couldn’t even admit that I was retired.  People would say, you retired, and I would say, well I just got out and after three years my girlfriend Ellen, said Tom you can’t keep saying that you’re out!  So I have to admit to the fact that I was retired, but I enjoy retirement.  I’m very active.  I’m on the board with the Fire Chiefs Association.  I belong to the FDNY Marine Corps Association, a lot of different things I do.  So, I’m very active, I stay in touch, I go to all the reunions of all of my firehouses.  Stevie, also known as whitefish, was a firemen in 108, retired as a Battalion Chief who runs reunions in Rockaway every year for that company. So I go to them all.  It’s great. 

Do you have any stories you would like to share?

One night I gave Jimmy from 42 Truck who recently passed away, he was an original member of the pipe and drum band, the pipers were formed in 1962.   Anyway, when probies came in to 42 Truck and 73 Engine, they would bring him down the kitchen, Jimmy would put on a doctor’s outfit and demonstrate how we perform circumcisions on the probies, which was kind of brilliant.

My grandfather was a Battalion Chief who died in 1926, Frank Owens, on my mother’s side. As I was studying for lieutenant, back in those days the library was in Long Island City.  In between tours, I would study.  As I was going through the Department orders, happened to come upon a Department order which was for Battalion Chief Frank Owens.  It’s my grandfather.  It was a whole page dedicated to his funeral. It was not line of duty death, but because he was still active on the job, they put him on the page, front page of the order.  I made copies of it and gave it to my mother. That was interesting. Yeah.

Did you have any problem or issues during your career?

Let’s see, well I have to say that throughout my career, most of my problems resulted from problems with other Chiefs.  The reason I left midtown was because of a Deputy Chief in the Third Division.  I was the delegate for the UFA in the Truck and there was a problem with union rules.

The Six division had some of the best Chiefs I’ve ever worked with anywhere, so there were great ,great great ,deputies and great Battalion Chiefs.  It was a good way to learn.

When I was in 19 Truck, this guy Joe, of Cuban descent, great guy. Hard, hard, hard working man.  He owned four tenements up in Harlem and he maintained them himself, did all the work himself.  When he went to bed, he would snore.  It was unbelievable, of course everybody’s in the same bunks, So what the boys did was they tied a heavy rope to his bed and dropped  that down pole hole.  Tied it to the fire truck and when the Engine went out they cleared a path.  He was sleeping when the engine went out.  Joe’s bed with him in it.  It went all the way across until it hit the pole hole and sort of woke him up.

But that was just one of the many things!

I mean, I know how many stories of guys who would come into work looking for his locker and it would be hanging outside the building on a rope, or a guy would open up his locker and it would be completely bricked up inside.  These are things that went on all the time.  

There was this one of the famous tricks when a new guy would come into the firehouse.  They would be all talking with the new guy, and they would say, are you in good shape, physically?  Well, they would have him put on the life belt.  At that time we had this life belt that had a big hook used for going over the side of buildings for lowering ourselves to rescue somebody.  They would say, we’ll put the belt on and see if can you jump up onto the tip of the aerial ladder.  Can you jump and reach, see if you can hook that belt on the rung?  Sure the new guy would say, oh I could do that.  The guy would jump up, struggle and hook it.  Well, once you hooked it on, it was impossible to get down.  So, the boys that come out with water and brooms and they would do a job on him for five minutes long.  It was great!

I would say there is a serious part of the job was the first time I had a DOA.  In my seven years in Midtown, we had a fair amount of fires and the one thing about fires in Midtown, they’re all scary.  They’re very very dangerous fires.  All the buildings are different.  Well when you go down 20 feet, make a right, you’re going to have a window in a tenement, you know you don’t have that in the law office, you don’t have that in a high rise.  So these are scary fires, but I never had DOA, down there was a lot of structural damage, nothing to do with people.

When I went to Harlem, I was there about a week and we had a fire.  It was in a project right across the street from the firehouse.  Two young boys were killed, both in a bed together and they were playing with matches. That’s what started the fire in their room.  It was really very disturbing the first time to see this.  They were probably about 6 to 7 years old, these two brothers.  So that was that was disturbing, that was my first.  Then after a while you sort of get used to it you know, you just don’t take it personally.

You know you realize these are dead people, but to me what affected me a lot was that we would see, these fires in the tenements and these people would be doing their best to have a nice place to live, you know plastic covers on the furniture and all that.  These fires, even if the fire wasn’t in their apartment, if the fire was above them when we were finished, the water would go down with the walls. Everything would be ruined.  Most of the apartments below the fire, a lot of these people had no insurance.  It was impossible to get insurance and they’d be wiped out.  Everything they had would be gone.  It was sad, you see them standing there looking, trying to picking through the rubble, trying to find something, but really terrible. I know the people in California fires, it terrible, but they all have insurance. These people had nothing.  So when they got wiped out, they were really wiped out.

September 11, 2001

My brother Bob and I went to Malaysia to see my brother’s grandson, who had just been born.  So we were in Kuala Lumpur for a week and then we went to Bangkok for a week because if we went this far as you must make a vacation of it.  When we flew back to Tokyo to spend one night in Tokyo, had reservations at a hotel.  When we arrived in Tokyo there was a storm and the rain was sideways with the wind. It was crazy.

So, we decided, you know let’s see we can go back today. What’s the sense of staying here and spending money.  We checked with the airlines and sure enough in the same flight we were going to take the next day, they had two seats open, so we were able to get on that plane.

It turns out that that was September 11, we were on Japan Airlines, 90% of the people on the plane were Japanese and as we were flying over Chicago, just as we went over Lake Michigan, the pilot came on and said there’s been an incident on a runway in JFK.  We’re going to land in Chicago.  So, my brother and I figured it must have been a plane crash in New York.   We land in Chicago and then a representative of American Airlines came on the plane and told us that the towers had been struck and they collapsed.

So, you know being familiar with high rise buildings, I said to my brother Bob, that’s impossible.  So they might be on fire, but they could not collapse.  Well it turns out that the reason we were allowed to land in Chicago was, when the attack occurred the FAA ordered every foreign airlines to either go to Mexico or Canada depending on where you were in the air at the time.  This flight was a Japan Airlines flight was a co-flight with American Airlines.

The plane was allowed to land in Chicago for that reason.  We went down to the lobby and sure enough the towers had collapsed.  We’re looking at the TV, we’re seeing this.  The airlines said they were going to put us up overnight and fly us out the next day.   

Both of us started to get on the bus to the hotel and realized, they’re not going to be able fly any time soon.  This is not going to happen tomorrow.  So, we went over to rent the car. The line was a mile long, I just went right at the desk and asked how many people are going for cars.  A woman said no one because, whoever has the cars out, there are not returning them, and all the cars on the lot are reserved.

No one’s getting a car.  We jumped in a cab went down to the train station in Chicago and there was a huge crowd around the ticket counter.  Turns out they were sold out for three days because all the business men brought tickets when they learned nothing was flying for a week.  I had spoken to an Amtrak woman, when I asked her about it, she said it is all sold out.   I said we are New York City firefighters and we want to get back.  Now we’re having a sandwich, right there at the train station and the Amtrak woman came over and said are you the firefighters.  Yes, well they’re putting an extra car on tonight’s train.  Give me your credit card, I’ll get the ticket for you both before they announce it.  She did that and we were able to get back the next day back to New York.

I immediately went down to my firehouse which is in the Bronx Engine 94 Ladder 48 the 3rd Battalion.

Went down the next morning at six o’clock in the van about 10 of us.  I remember we pulled up on the south of the Trade Center and there was one piece of skin of the building that was still remaining.  When I got out of the car, we were standing in about a 10 to 12 inches of this white powder and I’m looking at the skin of that building, there wasn’t a sound.  It was surreal, like it’s a movie set.  Then we proceeded to go up and we started doing the search, we were there for I don’t know how many days.  Obviously, it was not a rescue mission, it was a recovery mission because there was nobody left alive.  My friend Steve, who had retired the Deputy from the 1st Division, he and I felt that we weren’t doing much on that on the pile.

So they’d set up an area at the pier, I think Pier 94, where all the families would come in and they had set up stations all around, Red Cross and all the different services.

We would take them around to each one and I’d get the right paperwork.  We did that for a number of months.  We all lost a lot of friends that day.  19 Truck, where my son was going down later in the day, they were down there when building 4 WTC collapsed.  No one was hurt from that.  I have a lot of friends who lost sons.

John Vigiano, a friend of mine who lost two sons that day.  A Policemen and Firemen.  I consider myself lucky.  You know my son Tom, came out of it okay.  He just retired from the Fire Department himself.  Yeah, I figure I’m lucky.  I’m enjoying my retirement. I travel a lot.  Ellen and I go away probably two or three times a year, plus I’m involved as I said, involved with the Fire Chiefs Association and a lot of other things.

Yeah you know, I miss it but I’m used to retirement now. 

It was late December of 1982. I was a Captain Engine 14. I was working overtime in Ladder 34, and we had a fire.  There were some people trapped.  Myself, Mike TeLaska and Charlie Roberto, my can and my iron man and we went up above to try and find these people, It turns out we lost a couple of people, we saved a couple of people.

We ended up getting medals, so Medal Day came around June of 1983 and I was still a Captain of Engine 14 at the time and my sister in law was coming down from Westchester with her kids for the ceremony.  My wife was coming in, the fire department was picking them up with a van.  So, they were coming in from Ronkonkoma, and my sister in law was coming from Westchester.  I was in the firehouse because I had to go down with that group.  So, what I did was when my sister in law arrived I took them into the firehouse.  In quarters there is an apparatus called the thawing apparatus, which was used to thaw out frozen hydrants.  So basically, it was a little truck with an oil burner and a bunch of equipment.  So what I did was I took everything out of the truck of course except the oil burner, which was permanent.  I put in some folding chairs and put my sister in law and her kids in truck.  I get in the truck and as I drove the truck out of quarters, there was a battalion chief who was also going down to the ceremony, standing by the House watch and he had all he had look at his face and he could not believe what is this guy doing.  I just waved and said I’ll see you down there, and I drove out.  His was like his mouth was wide open and he just couldn’t believe what he was seeing.  So we drove down to the ceremony. I was able to drive by City Hall because it was a fire truck. You know, did the ceremony, and I drove back. It was great fun, you know to this day probably still can’t believe it though.  

Yeah, well I probably be fired today for doing it.

The Job

It’s changed in a way, it really has. Yeah but it’s still a great job.  Really for the young guys coming in, it’s their job.  I remember when I first came on most of the guys in 1962, my entire firehouse was all World War II Vets. Guys in their 40s and they would say to me, you know kid, it’s a good job but it’s changed.  The job always changes. But for the kids coming on today, it’s like, hey this is a great job.

I just never thought of retiring, from day one you know a lot of guys who thought, well 20 years, that thought never entered my mind. I couldn’t see why would I leave this job for half pay and then go out and work in the real world.

In the kitchen, well there’s too much food but it was always good food. That’s the one thing about that refrigerator.  I walked in the kitchen at midnight and opened up the refrigerator, there was always leftover food, couple of gallons of ice cream and always chocolate donuts.  

So that was good but it was bad. You know did not lend itself to staying in shape. Now it’s changed, now every firehouse has a gym.  They all work out. They’re all muscle guys which is great, they are in great shape.  It’s changed but it’s still a great job. Yeah, I mean the camaraderie is the thing that you can’t put a price on.  I’m out 18 years, and I’m still very active, I see a lot of the guys, and the camaraderie is still there. 

I’m very fortunate.

Well a check comes in every month. That’s nice. So, for you guys who are working you can count on that!