Lakeland FD 9-11

​Peter Brennan’s love for his job kept him as enthused as a fresh recruit despite his six years of experience with the New York Fire Department. He reported to work early Tuesday “itching to get back to fighting fires” after a six-week vacation, said his wife, who is expecting their second child in January. Glen Pettit, a photographer for the New York Police Department, was happiest when he was squinting through a camera, videotaping crime scenes. John Napolitano lived to rescue people and douse flames for the New York City and Lakeland fire departments. The three men all grew up in Ronkonkoma. They come from families of civil servants, bloodlines with strong connections to the professions that keep cities and states afloat: teachers, nurses, firefighters and police officers. Brennan and Pettit were both 30 at the time of the attacks; Napolitano was 33.

Captain John Napolitano FDNY

RESCUE 2 FDNY AND STILL RIDING

Friends since high school, they were bonded by a mix of fond memories and a passion for their roles as civil servants. And they were part of the rescue effort at the World Trade Center. Yesterday, all three shared a grim commonality: They were missing and feared dead. “He saw the bravery and the honor that goes with fighting fires,” Anne Napolitano said of her husband at their Ronkonkoma home. “It was truly his life.” Napolitano, who worked for Rescue 2, based in Brooklyn, is a former chief of the Lakeland Volunteer Fire Department. He reported to work Monday evening for a 24-hour shift and later called home to say goodnight to his two daughters, Elizabeth, 6, and Emma, 2. Anne Napolitano, who works in marketing at Computer Associates, was in the company cafeteria Tuesday morning when she saw the attack at the World Trade Center on television. “I saw it happen,” she said. “I just knew from the magnitude” of it that everyone from Rescue 2 would be at the scene. Napolitano had graduated from Connetquot High School.

It was during those years that he met his wife, as well as Brennan and Pettit. “He was really skilled at what he did,” said Pettit’s sister, Deirdre Kroupa, 33, of Islip Terrace. “He’s also a very energetic and strong man who adores his family.” Pettit, who had worked as a freelance photographer for Newsday and volunteered at the Lakeland and West Sayville fire departments, had gone to crime scenes with NYPD

Commissioner Bernard Kerik for the past year, just as he did Tuesday. But something went dreadfully wrong that day, Kroupa said. Pettit was walking toward Tower One with his partner, Scott Nicholson, after the first building collapsed, when the girders of the building began to give way, spilling tons of steel, concrete and glass onto the street. Nicholson told Pettit’s family that both men ran from the avalanche, with Pettit about 100 yards behind, but that he disappeared in the plumes of dust that filled the streets. Yesterday, his family, his three brothers and two sisters and their families crowded into his parents’ Ronkonkoma home to watch the news and wait for word. “The family is having a really tough time,” Kroupa said, adding that their spirits were lifted when they heard the news – apparently false – that five firefighters had emerged from the rubble yesterday. “We’re just trying to sort through what’s real and not real.”

Remembering PO Glen Petit NYPD

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​“We’re just trying to sort through what’s real and not real.” Peter Brennan’s wife, Erica, said her husband, who worked at Rescue 4 in Queens, is to receive the Long Island Volunteer Firefighters Gold Award of Valor this month, for saving other firefighters trapped in a Ronkonkoma basement. He was always eager to use the life-saving skills he had dreamed of acquiring for years, said his wife of six years. “My husband loves to help people. He couldn’t wait to go back to work after vacation.” The couple had just returned from taking their daughter Anna, 2, to Dutch Wonderland in Pennsylvania, and they celebrated Erica’s 29th birthday Monday night. “He was itching to go back and see some fire. He loved it so much,” she said. Erica Brennan added that her husband is fascinated with ropes and using knots to serve as lifelines for fire victims. A former New York police officer, he’d been a volunteer for the Lakeland fire department for many years before joining the volunteer squad in Hauppauge. “He put his heart and soul into firefighting,” she said. “If this is the way he had to die, this is the way he would have preferred to die: doing what he loved.”

​Remembering Peter Brennan FDNY

September 11th Memorial Dedicated to NYC Firefighter Peter Brennan – KSWO Reporter Scott Miller

FF William Mahoney

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William J. Mahoney Jr. of Bohemia died heroically while rescuing others at the World Trade Center, Sept. 11, 2001. He was a proud member of Rescue 4 of Queens. Formerly with East New York Engine 236, and Ladder 103. Mahoney was previously with the NYPD’s 73 Precinct and the NYPD’s Scuba Diver Special Unit. Ice Rescue Instructor. He was the ex-captain and life member of Lakeland Fire Department. Mahoney was a baseball coach for Connetquot Little League. He is survived by his wife, Donna; his children, Denise, Shannon, William and Joseph; siblings Christine Johnston, Michael Mahoney and Maryann Mahoney and his father, William. He is also survived by his sibling- in-laws: Edward Johnston, Jennifer Mahoney, John and Bea Russo and Celeste and Tommy Langella and his parents-in-law, Mindy and John Russo. He was predeceased by his mother, Patricia Mahoney.
He is also survived by many nieces and nephews. He loved Irish music and relaxing on the beach. His strong, kind presence is very much missed by many family members and many friends.

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William J. Mahoney A Firefighter, ‘Great Father’ and Cool Coach – November 4, 2001

On his first day with Rescue Co.4 five years ago, Billy Mahoney helped his company drag an unconscious woman out of a blazing apartment in Woodside and then watched the firefighters erupt into a fistfight and food fight in the Queens firehouse kitchen minutes later. He took in the mingled stink of blood, smoke and flour and grinned at his new colleagues. “I think I’m going to like it here,” Mahoney said. A Lakeland volunteer firefighter who once was mischievous enough to lob a meatball at the face of an angry chief, the 38-year-old Ronkonkoma resident was a loving father of four whose loss is also mourned by the Connetquot Youth Association, where he coached 11-year-old baseball players. The body of the 15-year city fire department veteran was recovered last week in the rubble of the World Trade Center. A funeral Mass for him will be held at 11 a.m.

Monday at St. Joseph’s Church of Ronkonkoma after family visiting hours Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Moloney Lake Funeral Home in Ronkonkoma. “He adored me and I adored him, and he was a great father,” Mahoney’s wife, Donna, said, remembering how he loved to play ball with sons, Billy, 12, and Joseph, 9, and to tease his daughters, Denise, 15, and Shannon, 14.
Mahoney was a former New York City police scuba diver who continued to use his skills with the fire department and with the recovery effort after the TWA Flight 800 crash. “He was part fish,” said Rescue Co. 4 Lt. Tim Kelly. He also loved to use those scuba skills in his free time on spearfishing trips in Long Island Sound with Ray Smith, a Rescue Co. 2 firefighter who had been close to him since they were both teen members of Lakeland Junior Fire Department. Mahoney was as naturally gifted at baseball as he was fighting fires, Smith recalled, and more than once won the prize for the longest drive at charity golf outings. “It seemed to be an innate ability with him,” Smith said. “I always felt I had to try a little harder, and look at things, but he just did it all naturally … almost effortlessly.”

​When a firehouse argument got too hot, Mahoney would cut the tension by smashing a plate between the combatants. But with his closest friends he’d rather talk about plans for his kids and about his favorite books. One of those was “Tuesdays With Morrie,” the bestselling account of a dying professor’s wisdom. As a coach, Mahoney was known for his compassion with the kids. He wasn’t one of those screaming Little League coaches, friends recall; he preferred the quiet approach, taking a kid aside and giving him a confidence boost and some inspiration. The kids repaid him with trust and respect. And next spring the youth association plans to install a memorial boulder and dedicate one of the fields at Ronkonkoma’s Duffield Elementary School in memory of Billy Mahoney. — Elizabeth Moore (Newsday)

William J. Mahoney II – National Fallen Firefighters …

William Mahoney Obituary (2001) – Bohemia, NY – Newsday

Firefighter Fatality Notice for William J. Mahoney

9/11’s Long Shadow Over FDNY’s Rescue 4 | Queenswide …

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