GREAT GRADUATES
JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
From First Responder To First Preventer By Cathy Rainone
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EW YORK CITY Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano always had a good excuse when he was late for class at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. But he didn’t have to explain it to his professors. “Sometimes I got stuck at a fire,” says Cassano, a 40-year veteran of the department who’s been commissioner since January, “and my professors understood it because they smelled the smoke on me when I got in.” Cassano, 65, became a firefighter in 1969 and in 1970 enrolled in John Jay’s fire science program. For six years he battled fires with different engine companies in lower Manhattan then headed off to school after his shift. After graduation, he rose through the ranks of the FDNY, and he attributes much of his success to earning a CUNY degree. “We took hydraulics classes, we took psychology classes, we took building-construction classes and all of that helped me out in grasping of what it was to My experience at CUNY was tremendous. be a firefighter,” says I think it’s a great way to get an education Cassano. “It taught me without having tremendous bills later on. how to study for my — Salvatore Cassano, FDNY Commissioner promotional exams. It carried me throughout the rest of my career.” Like many CUNY students who have full- or part-time jobs, juggling work and college wasn’t easy. “It was a hectic schedule,” he says. “John Jay was full of policemen and firefighters and we all had the same goal: to work, to raise a family, but also to get an education. So it was a great way to go to school.” Cassano graduated from John Jay in 1976 and a year later was promoted to lieutenant, working at Ladder 113 in Brooklyn. He became a captain in 1984, then went on to become a battalion chief, division chief, deputy assistant chief and in 2001, assistant chief. Four years ago, he became FDNY’s Chief of Department — the highest-ranking uniformed officer — in charge of fire and EMS operations, training, safety, fire prevention and communications. When Mayor Michael Bloomberg named Cassano to become the city’s 32nd fire commissioner in January, it was a departure from the selection of previous mayors, who usually chose candidates from outside the department. Cassano didn’t always want to be a firefighter. He loaded trucks on the Red Hook docks with his dad, Angelo, then got a job in a bank. Drafted into the Army at age 20, he returned to the waterfront after a year in Vietnam. Then one day everything changed. His older brother Patsy, a retired fire captain, took him to a firehouse. “Once he got me to
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meet the firefighters, to play softball with them, to go to a communal breakfast, it was instantaneously apparent that [being a firefighter] is not just a job, it’s a whole way of life,” says Cassano. “I tell people that I never felt like I worked a day in my life because I love what I do.” Although his responsibilities evolved over the years, nothing compares to fighting fires. “There’s nothing like the adrenaline rush,” says Cassano, who still goes to many fires to assess the department’s response. “I miss it every day. The excitement of helping people never goes away. I hear a siren now and I figure I should be responding somewhere.” Although he has been cited five times for bravery, he says he always had a bit of fear when answering the alarm. “You go to work always respecting your job and the dangers of it,” says Cassano. “And there’s always something in the back of your mind that you may not come home that night.” One of the darkest days for the department was Sept. 11, 2001, when 343 members of the FDNY lost their lives in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. “I was very lucky,” says Cassano, who stood in front of the north tower when it collapsed. “I scurried away and was able to dive under an apparatus.” Cassano helped rebuild the department and also helped with the cleanup of ground zero. Nearly a decade has passed since that tragic day, but for Cassano it’s still an open wound. “It keeps me grounded,” he says. “It keeps me focused on my job.… I’m here to make sure that our firefighters are protected.” Since September 11th, the role of the department has expanded to include training in response to terrorism. In May, when firefighters from Engine 54 and Ladder 4 responded to a car fire in Times Square, they quickly determined it wasn’t a fire but a