Just want to make it clear. I was not at the McGregor Building fire. The picture Davey G. sent me brought back memories of cold nights. I can't say 16th & Littleton was the coldest fire I was at, but there's another reason it stands out in my mind.

The other reason I remember it is because the 1st signs of M.S. presented themselves by the time we got back to quarters. I spent the next six plus years fighting fires w/ an ever-worsening case of Multiple Sclerosis, not even knowing I had the disease. It eventually affected my equilibrium, sense of touch, & stamina which made it impossible to ignore.

My last fire was in April of ’85. I had been diagnosed & so was only driving when we caught an eleven w/ an additional nine.

The Battalion & the Deputy spent too much of their time asking me how I felt. So, when we returned to quarters, I was told very nicely to go home.

It was one hell of a run back then, but I had become a liability on the fire ground that no chief wanted to take responsibility for. Can’t say I blamed them. For the next nineteen years, I did whatever the department needed me to do and prayed I could make it to twenty-four years before my body gave out.

One of the reasons I work on the oral history of the NFD is to repay the department & all the guys for carrying me for nineteen years. Made a lot of friends, had a great time in the field, & tried to pass the torch to the next generation. My career could have been much better, but those first years were unbelievable.

The picture with this post is from 1982, right in the middle of those unbelievable years.

I started the oral history project so future generations can know what it was like to fight fires "back in the day."

I wanted to preserve the many triumphs & tragedies of Newark firefighters as they fulfilled their oath to protect lives & property.

It's kind of my way of repaying them for all the years of camaraderie & support.