Hollywood actor Steve Buscemi had left the New York City Fire Department to pursue acting, but the September 11, 2001, attacks brought him back to the fire service. The next morning, he returned to Ground Zero, where he joined firefighters searching through the rubble of the World Trade Center. Years later, he continued supporting his former colleagues through Friends of Firefighters, a nonprofit that provides free, confidential mental health services to firefighters and their families.According to an article Steve himself wrote for TIME magazine in September 2021, he had spent four years working at Engine 55 in Lower Manhattan before taking a leave of absence to focus on acting. He had expected to return to firefighting one day. After the attacks, he collected his old gear, got a lift to the disaster site and joined a bucket brigade moving debris. “Seventeen years later, I was,” Buscemi wrote in TIME, referring to his return to the fire service. He described the rubble being passed along the line and recalled the disturbing sight of body bags being carried away.The actor said the dust at Ground Zero was initially treated as a nuisance, even as it clogged masks and made working difficult. He recalled someone warning, “This is probably going to kill us in 20 years.” The long-term consequences of toxic exposure became a major concern for first responders. In his TIME essay, Buscemi wrote that chronic health conditions emerged before the recovery work at the site was even complete. He also noted that many people who worked at Ground Zero continued to face health problems long after the attacks.
Why Buscemi returned to his old firehouse
Photo credit: TIME magazine
Buscemi joined the FDNY in the 1980s. According to TIME magazine, he explained that his father, a New York City sanitation worker, had encouraged him and his brothers to take a civil service test when they turned 18. Buscemi took the Fire Department’s test and was assigned to Engine 55. He initially kept his acting ambitions quiet at the firehouse. Eventually, however, balancing firefighting shifts with film and theatre work became difficult, prompting him to take a leave of absence.The connection he had formed with the department remained important to him. In the days following 9/11, he said, he felt a strong sense of belonging among the people working at Ground Zero. He spent less than a week at the site, but said the scale of the tragedy caught up with him after he returned home.Buscemi also wrote that he was already seeing a therapist. Having someone with whom he could sit and process his feelings helped him deal with what had happened. He noted that this kind of support was not something first responders usually received. That experience helped explain why mental health support for firefighters became an issue he continued to speak about.
How Friends of Firefighters began
In his TIME essay, Buscemi credited Nancy Carbone with recognising that firefighters needed a place where they could discuss the emotional impact of 9/11. Carbone, a Brooklyn resident, began visiting firehouses in the aftermath of the attacks to ask how she could help. According to the official Friends of Firefighters website, she founded the organisation in 2001 to provide free, confidential and culturally appropriate mental health and wellness services to active and retired FDNY firefighters and their families.Friends of Firefighters was created to address that gap. It offered a way for firefighters to seek help outside the department, without the fear that their conversations would be reported through official employment channels. The organisation expanded its work beyond individual firefighters to include their spouses, children and other family members.
More than 4,200 counselling sessions a year
Photo credit: www.globalheroes.com
By 2024, Friends of Firefighters was delivering more than 4,200 counselling sessions annually, according to its website. The services reach active firefighters, retirees, spouses and children, while maintaining confidentiality and independence from department oversight. That figure is a measure of counselling sessions, not the number of individual people served. The organisation’s work includes mental health counselling, peer support and wellness services. Its approach recognises that firefighters may be reluctant to discuss trauma, grief or stress with people who have not experienced the demands of their profession.
Buscemi’s role in the organisation
Buscemi is not the founder of Friends of Firefighters. He supports its work and serves on its advisory council, alongside other public figures and people connected to the fire service. The website lists him as an actor, writer, director and former FDNY firefighter. As reported by Global Heroes, he has helped with fundraising and used his public profile to draw attention to firefighters’ experiences. He has also helped tell their stories through documentary projects, including ‘A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY’ and ‘Dust: The Lingering Legacy of 9/11.’ The latter examines the continuing consequences of exposure to hazardous dust at the World Trade Center site.In an interview with Global Heroes, Buscemi described the importance of making sure people do not feel alone in what they are going through. “So many people can feel isolated or that they’re the only ones that are going through this,” he said. “It’s important to know that we’re all going through this together.” He also stressed that the effects of 9/11 did not end when the immediate rescue and recovery work finished.