O Captain! My Captain!

Captain Brian C. Hickey - FDNY

Rescue 4

Brian C. Hickey spent the final twenty years of his life serving and protecting the people of the City of New York as a a member of the FDNY.  At the time of his death on September 11, 2001, he commanded one of the FDNY's elite units, Rescue 4, in Queens.  Less than three months prior to his death, while he and his men were responding to a house fire in Astoria, Queens on Father's Day, Captain Hickey was badly injured when an explosion blew him into a ceiling.  Three firefighters died, including two members of Rescue 4, Firefighter Brian Fahey and Firefighter Harry Ford.  

He was so badly injured in the Father's Day fire that he only returned to work in early September, 2001. He had just completed his second shift after returning from medical leave when he and his men drove straight into the mouth of Hell in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001. On what proved to be the final shift of his life, he was working overtime as the covering captain of another elite unit, Rescue 3.  He and the seven members of Rescue 3 with whom he rode to the World Trade Center were all killed there. As he always did, Captain Hickey rode to what would be the final job of his FDNY career with a photograph of his family inside of his helmet.  That photograph was accompanied by the mass cards for the firefighters killed in the Father's Day fire upon his return from his medical leave. 

Brian Hickey had married his high school sweetheart, Donna.  They were the proud parents of three sons (Danny, Dennis, and Kevin) and one daughter (Jackie).  One week prior to his death, he had danced with Jackie at her Sweet 16 party. 

O Captain! My Captain!

Our fearful trip is done.

The ship has weather'd every rack,

The prize we sought is won. 

-AK