Family Business

None of you believes 

Until he wishes for his brother

What he wishes for himself. 

- Anonymous

In the Haskell family, the FDNY is the family business.  Thomas Haskell, Sr. joined the FDNY in 1969, after having first served his country in the United States Marine Corps.  In his ten years on the job, which career was cut short by a heart attack he suffered in 1979, he started out with 35 Truck and then moved over to Ladder 174 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.  

Thomas Haskell, Sr., who died in 1994, had five children - four of whom were sons.  Three of his sons followed him into the family business.  Two of the three died on the job on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. 

Timothy Haskell was thirty-four years young when he died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.  FF Haskell was a member of Rescue 18 in the West Village.  That morning, he had just completed a fifteen-hour shift and was on his way to the subway when he saw smoke spewing from the towers.  He ran back to the firehouse, put on his gear, and headed off into harm's way.  He could not help himself.  As his sister, Dawn, proudly observed, "he was always rescuing something."

FF Timothy Haskell 

Rescue 18 - FDNY

His big brother, Thomas Haskell, Jr., thirty-seven years young, was the first-born of the quintet of Haskell siblings.  He was a Captain with Ladder Company 132 in Brooklyn who the FDNY posthumously promoted to Battalion Chief.  Unlike his bachelor brother, Timothy, Captain Haskell was a husband and a father.  His wife, Barbara, and he were the proud parents of three daughters, Meaghan, Erin, and Tara.  

Battalion Chief Thomas Haskell, Jr.

Ladder 132 - FDNY

FF Ken Haskell - the third member of the Haskell Brothers' Firefighting Fraternity and youngest of the trio - survived September 11, 2001.  He was off-duty that morning.  Ten years after the attacks, Dennis Smith, the author of Report from Ground Zero, wrote A Decade of Hope: Stories of Grief and Endurance from 9/11 Families and Friends.  Ken Haskell is among those with whom Dennis Smith spoke and his contribution to the book is worth a read.   

Because when rescuing others is imprinted in your familial DNA, it is not a responsibility you ever shirk.  Not once.  Not ever.  

-AK