MICHAEL L. BOCCHINO: A
Firefighter's Scrapbook
Michael L. Bocchino kept a scrapbook of all the fires
he fought and the people he helped rescue in his 22 years
as a fireman. The first entry dealt with a Harlem
apartment fire in June 1980 -- when he was 24 -- in which
two firemen plunged to their deaths. The book's last
chapter will be about the World Trade Center, his last
fire. As family members compile material for it, his
uncle, Leo Piro, a retired fireman, reminds people that
his nephew's career started and ended with a
disaster.
For the last 12 years, Mr. Bocchino, 45, worked as a
chief's aide in Battalion 48 in Brooklyn, helping deploy
units at fires. He was devoted to his elderly parents,
Michael and Lucy, with whom he lived, and his work,
family members said.
During a memorial Mass on Oct. 13, his brother Tom
talked of the scrapbook, and the people Mr. Bocchino had
saved since 1979. And he lamented the sudden end of his
career. "We may never get to meet anyone he might have
rescued on Sept. 11."
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