Brian Bilcher: Always to the
Rescue
Captain
America. That's what Tina Bilcher called her husband,
Brian, a firefighter at Squad Company 1 in Brooklyn.
Firefighter Bilcher, 37, was a lot like the patriotic
comic book superhero: calm, reasonable, good-looking and
quick to the rescue of anyone who needed help.
Car stuck on the side of the road? There was
Firefighter Bilcher. Feeling sick? Like a flash,
Firefighter Bilcher was at your bedside. The man liked
his adrenaline rushes, said his wife. "He once jumped off
a lighthouse into the ocean," said Mrs. Bilcher. He even
got her to jump with him.
She says now that she did it for love -- "I wanted to
impress him."
A strapping 6 feet, 240 pounds, Firefighter Bilcher
was working part-time as a bouncer at Coaches Cafe in
Staten Island six years ago when Tina, two weeks shy of
21, showed up. He refused to let her in. He told her to
come back in two weeks. She did. They talked. They were
married June 4, 2000, in Staten Island. The wedding
pictures show the twin towers in the background.
Grant James Bilcher was born Aug. 29. The couple named
him Grant because he was a grant from God. "Brian always
wanted a boy," his wife said.
.
