RAYMOND M. DOWNEY: Firefighter to
the Core
Raymond
M. Downey was the battalion chief in charge of special
operations in the New York City Fire Department.
Here's his son, Chuck, a fire lieutenant: "Dad joined
the Fire Department on April 7, 1962. Coming on in the
60's, they went to a lot of fires. The war years, they
termed it. In 1995 he was assigned to Special Operations
Command, SOC is the acronym, as chief of rescue
operations. . . .
"He was on the Gilmore Commission to fight domestic
terrorism. No one's going to see it all, but I don't
think anyone thought of the World Trade Center. .
.
"When the south tower went down, there was a lot of
Maydays. He survived. A lot of the top brass did. These
are all guys with 30- plus years. They went back in.
There were two young firemen, he told them, not in the
nicest language, to get out of here."
Here's Chief Downey's daughter, Marie Tortorici:
"Mommy, Rosalie, is Italian. Daddy's Irish. He would have
been 64 on Sept. 19. He's very spiritual. He was in
Oklahoma City after the bombing. Gov. Keating gave him a
set of rosary beads. He wore them every day. Well, they
broke, and he kept them in his pocket. He had them with
him, because they're not home. . . .
"When I was a little girl, he was working three jobs
to support the family, and he was always too busy to come
to the school to do fire prevention week. Last year, when
my daughter was in first grade, he went to the school for
fire prevention week. I don't know. It's so sad,
everything. But a good thing came out of this. My sister,
my father called her the baby, we just found out she's
pregnant. So she felt like it was a blessing from my
father."
.
