Joseph P. Spor, Jr.: Like Father,
Like Son
Joseph
P. Spor Jr. followed in his father's footsteps from the
day he was born, which happened to be his father's
birthday.
Like his father, he became a firefighter in the Bronx.
Like his father, he also worked as a contractor, skilled
enough to raise the roof on his Cape Cod house in Somers,
N.Y. And in August, Firefighter Spor, 35, was assigned to
the same company, Rescue 3 in the Bronx, where his father
had worked. "He was ecstatic," said his wife, Colleen.
"He was practicing every night on ropes to get all the
different knots he'd be tested on."
Before joining the Fire Department in 1994,
Firefighter Spor had an office job in Manhattan. But as
the youngest of six children, and the only boy, the pull
of his father's boots was irresistible. "He was never all
that cut out for a suit and tie," said Michael Griffin, a
close friend.
When he wasn't at the firehouse, Firefighter Spor
usually strapped on his tool belt. His neighbor Michael
Hurson was building a deck in his backyard when they
first met. "He came nosing down the driveway and said,
`Show me what you're doing,'" Mr. Hurson said. "Then he
brought over his own lunch bucket and helped me
finish."
Firefighter Spor never got to complete the remodeling
of his own house. His Fire Department colleagues took
care of the siding. And his father finished the deck.
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